


Roots

by blueminshee (hereruha)



Category: K-pop, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Future, Angst, Dystopia, Kim Seokjin | Jin & Kim Taehyung | V Are Best Friends, Kim Taehyung | V & Park Jimin Are Soulmates, Multi, Oracles, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Polyamory, Post-Apocalypse, Post-Nuclear Catastrophe, Soulmates, Supernatural Elements, Will get explicit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2020-01-07 10:26:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18408758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hereruha/pseuds/blueminshee
Summary: A nuclear catastrophe completely changed the face of the Earth hundreds of years ago. Now, the descendants of the survivors live in trees, giant monsters of glass and steel, the only places unaffected by the radiations. However, something pushes Taehyung and Seokjin to flee this so-called safe haven, taking away with them what the government seems to value the most.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not a native speaker.
> 
> I first started writing this in another fandom, but I just couldn't stop myself from thinking about a vminkook version, so here it is!
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/minmoanie)  
>  [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/minmoanie)  
>  [Spotify playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6i1SbB69UssdWV8tTXPmzZ?si=DExCR-ACTlyOraWxIrvM4A)

 

_“Your attention please. From 9 o’clock onwards, people from the fourth district are requested to stay inside their homes.”_

A black-haired young man glanced at his brunet friend as the announcement was made. This was weird, announcements like these weren’t common, and that it was directed to the fourth district was even more unusual.

“What do you think this is about?” asked the brunet, frowning slightly as he looked up at the sky. They weren’t supposed to be here, at the very edge of the eighth district's East branch, but he wanted to observe the outside world from another viewpoint than the living quarters and common areas, so they had snuck into this restricted area, by now knowing by heart the schedule of guards and the few other people authorised to come here.

“I don’t know,” replied the raven, standing up from the bench they’d been sitting on. “Normally it only happens when they’re in need of an oracle, but they just took one in three months ago.”

“Well, you know that was unexpected too... We’ve had five different oracles in less than two years,” mumbled the other, looking down at his trembling hands.

“Taehyung-ah, there’s no need to worry,” Seokjin turned to his best friend and patted his shoulder, smiling faintly.

He could say not to worry as many times as he wanted, Taehyung was still a potential oracle, and there was no way to change that. So far the brunet had been lucky enough not to be picked, but there seemed to be something going on. Oracles usually lived like anyone else, meaning that Taehyung and him should have known only one, maybe two oracles, but never six. He couldn’t help but wonder what the government was up to. A lot of things didn’t make sense. Oracles seemed to die prematurely, their bodies weren’t returned to their families even if that was the tradition, and no explanation was given.

“You don’t believe it yourself, hyung,” sighed the brunet, standing up as well. “You know I might be chosen this time.”

“I know, but there are still other ones like you.”

“How many? Haven’t you noticed that more and more people in the district are disappearing? Not only our age, but also children. There’s something going on in there, it’s not normal for children to be taken away,” groaned Taehyung, glaring over his shoulder at the trunk of the tree.

“I know that, Taehyung, but what do you want me to say?” sighed Seokjin, looking out through the glass, the sky a dark shade of red, almost reminding him of blood.

The sun was setting far in the West, a rare sight since the nuclear catastrophe that happened centuries ago. Seokjin had always wondered what it was like to live on the outside. All he could see were forests and lakes, and far in the distance he could make out the figure of another tree, probably similar to the one he lived in. A sort of monster made of glass.

From the books that their ancestors had taken with them when they moved in what was considered at the time as safe houses, trees actually quite looked like the glass buildings that could be seen in big cities such as Tokyo and New York in the past. Trees were just way bigger, and in the shape of an oak most of the time. Nowadays though, compared to a building from another time, a single tree housed thousands of people. They had been developed in such a way that it looked like a city made of several layers, those layers being the branches. Every family had living quarters, similar to flats, the difference being that people were kept in a sort of bubble and it was strictly forbidden to go outside. It was even forbidden to be in the area they were in, where they were surrounded by glass, able to see the nature surrounding them as if they were in it. Only high-ranking officials and scientists had access to this zone, although it had never stopped them from sneaking in.

“Have you ever wondered what happened to Jiminie?”

The raven froze when he heard his best friend’s question.

“One day we were playing with him, the next day his mother told us that he couldn’t anymore. Have you ever thought about what truly happened to him?” continued Taehyung, slouching on the bench.

Of course Seokjin had thought about Jimin. He did every day, after all the boy’s quarters were down his hallway, he walked past it all the time.

“We were children, Tae, nothing was happening at the time. It’s been thirteen years since then, we should get over it,” he sighed, glancing at the brunet from the corner of the eye.

He knew the way he phrased it could sound harsh, but it was the truth, they had to move on. Their friend had vanished, they couldn’t do anything about it, especially not thirteen years after.

“He would be twenty-two now. What if he’s in there, with all the others? What if he actually was the first one to never come back?”

Seokjin shook his head, at a loss for words. When they were children, Jimin was like a little brother to him, the same way Taehyung was. Seokjin was twelve and Jimin and Taehyung were only nine when Jimin suddenly disappeared. The raven perfectly remembered how him and Taehyung had kept on asking about their friend for months. They would go to his quarters every day and would ask his mother if the shorter boy was finally back. Now that Seokjin thought about it, Jimin’s mother seemed in grief at the time, but nor him or Taehyung had picked up on that, they weren’t old enough to understand, or maybe they just didn’t want to see it.

“Nine is still quite a young age for an oracle, Tae,” quietly said Seokjin. “He probably didn’t even have visions at the time, they usually come around the age of thirteen. We actually don’t even know if he was a potential oracle.”

The brunet was basing everything on what-ifs, and in Seokjin’s mind, that wasn’t good enough to go against the authorities, especially not for someone who probably was dead now. He knew his way of thinking was kind of cold-hearted, but he had already too many things to worry about to even care about the deads.

“I’ll eventually get chosen, you perfectly know that.”

The raven groaned and let himself fall on the bench, next to the other.

“I just want to know what’s going on in there, hyung,” murmured Taehyung, looking down at his entwined fingers.

“And then _what_?” snapped the older man. “What will you do once you know what’s up on the inside? You’ll run away? We can’t do shit in here, Taehyung, we’re trapped, and if we go out, we die from exposure to radiation.”

The brunet gaped at his best friend, not having expected such an outburst from him. He felt his ears burn as his face turned red, anger slowly rising inside of him too.

“You really have no fucking clue what it’s like to be an oracle, Seokjin,” he growled, dropping the honourifics. “You want my visions? Because I’ll give them to you, and then you’ll see what it’s like to have a bloody target on your back all the time. You’ll see what it’s like to fear the next harvest, feeling your guts twisting in dread, and then feel that disgusting relief wash over you when someone else is picked, because hey, you managed to get yourself a few more years to live.”

Taehyung stood up and strode away, clutching at the hem of his sweater. He knew that Seokjin wasn’t wrong, but at the same time the raven really had no idea what it was like to live like he did. The government made it look like being an oracle was a privilege, that it was a service to the community, that the chosen ones were saviours, but who really believed it? Certainly not those who had the gene. Once you were chosen, you didn’t see anyone anymore, that was at least one thing the brunet was sure of. Oracles were completely cloistered away from the rest of the population. Taehyung even suspected that they probably weren’t even treated as human beings once in there.

“Taehyung-ah, wait!”

He sighed heavily, but still stopped in his tracks to let his friend catch up to him. He wasn’t expecting anything from the raven, the hug he was pulled into catching him completely off guard.

“I’m sorry, I just don’t understand what good it will do to you to know what they’re really doing.”

The brunet slid his hands around the raven’s waist and hugged him back. “I’ll be able to prepare myself mentally for what’s awaiting me then,” he mumbled before inhaling the other’s scent. He somehow always smelled like flowers, that perfume always managing to soothe the brunet’s nerves.

Seokjin looked ahead, pondering the idea of breaking in another restricted area of the tree. It seemed to be the only way to calm down Taehyung, but would it really do so? What if what they found out was worse than what they had in mind right now? Than what Taehyung had in mind right now?

“What if we first went to Jimin’s quarters? We haven’t been there in a long time, but I think his mother might talk to us, she knows you might be picked after all,” he offered, letting go of the brunet.

“I’m not sure she will tell us much, but it doesn’t hurt to try, I guess,” sighed Taehyung, taking a few steps back.

Seokjin softly smiled at the him, both of them then making their way to the lift. In fact the raven was only buying himself some time in order to think about breaking in the restricted area. He was pretty sure Jimin’s mother wouldn’t be able to tell them much, she probably didn’t know anything, but it was the only thing he could think about to stop Taehyung from taking any rash decision, fear clouded the brunet’s common sense, he just didn’t think straight.

He kept in the defeated sigh that was threatening to leave his lips when they reached the fourth district. Walking out of the lift, they were directly met with the sight of immaculate white walls, neon blue lights and cherry blossom trees in tubes, typical of their district. The more he tried to think of a way to dissuade Taehyung from going in the restricted area, the more he realised there was no way to make the brunet change his mind. He was too stubborn to give up on finding out what was happening in there. However, the only way Seokjin could think about to get in there without being sent to jail directly wasn’t exactly secure either. He would have to use his father’s password, but the man was out of the raven’s life, so he couldn’t be sure that the password he knew was still right. It was one thing to go watch the outside scenery, but getting inside the trunk of the tree was on a whole other level.

“Good evening Mrs. Park, we’re sorry to bother you now, but would it be possible to talk?”

The raven was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard Taehyung talking. He hadn’t even noticed that they had reached the Parks’ quarters. He looked at Jimin’s mother and drastically paled when he saw the state the woman was in. She didn’t look like he remembered at all. She still dressed perfectly, sure, but she looked old, older than she truly was, her hair was dishevelled, and her eyes lacked of light, they were empty of any emotion. Yet, she gave them a small smile as she let them in her quarters.

Both the young adults looked around the place, disturbed by the state it was in. It looked like everything had been moved just recently. Any furniture that could have been in the way to the front door had been pushed to the side. Everything seemed out of place.

“I knew Jimin’s quarters were part of the bigger ones in the tree, but this isn’t even big, it’s huge,” whispered Taehyung to the raven.

Seokjin could only nod in agreement. As he glanced to his right, he could see the living room, and it was already the size of Taehyung’s quarters first floor, he didn’t want to imagine how big the other rooms were.

“I guess you’re here to talk about my son,” said the black-haired woman, looking at them over her shoulder.

“Well, sort of,” replied Seokjin with a small smile, feeling slightly uneasy.

“Follow me, it will be easier to explain if I show you first.”

The raven and the brunet glanced at each other, puzzled, but still went after Jimin’s mother. She led them to the third floor, both of them perfectly aware of where they were going. They knew Jimin’s bedroom used to be on the third floor of his quarters, that floor actually was all his.

“I’m sorry I kept this away from you for so long, boys, but nobody was supposed to know,” sighed Mrs. Park. “However, I know you’re a potential oracle, Taehyung-ah, so I guess you deserve to know what truly happened to Jimin.”

She opened a door and let them in before stepping in after them. Seokjin wasn’t sure this could be called a bedroom to this point. All he could see were medical devices all around the room with one huge king-sized bed in the middle. He slightly frowned as he noticed the crumpled bed sheets, someone had definitely been lying in that bed.

“I never allowed you in here for a reason,” started the raven-haired woman.

Seokjin and Taehyung looked at her. While a frown had twisted the raven’s face, the brunet looked shocked.

“Jimin has always been in his room since that day, thirteen years ago,” she continued.

“What do you mean?” asked Taehyung, disbelief written all over his face. “You’ve locked him up in your quarters for so long?”

“I didn’t lock him up, Taehyung-ah, I didn’t know what was going on until it was too late,” retorted Jimin’s mother, her voice slightly raised.

Seokjin wandered around the room, recognising a few of the devices that were still plugged in. To him there was only one reason for this set-up, but it still didn’t make sense. All these apparatus were normally used to keep someone alive, someone who was in coma most of the time.

“He’s been in a comatose state all this time, that’s why I never let anyone in again after that day,” she explained, noticing how Seokjin looked at the devices. “They call it the ‘oracle state’, but really, how could my son have been useful to them if he was basically brain dead?” she whispered, her voice quivering.

“Brain dead?” stuttered Taehyung, letting himself fall on the bed, his hands shaking uncontrollably.

“And the proof that his state wasn’t normal is that they left him here after they realised something went wrong,” she continued, as if she hadn’t heard the brunet.

“Hang on, Jimin was _nine_ years old, how could they know he was a potential oracle? Nobody shows symptoms before the age of thirteen,” interrupted Seokjin, turning away from a bloody needle he had just spotted on the nightstand

Mrs. Park took a frame from the chest of drawers near the door. “Did he ever tell you about his nightmares?” she asked, staring at the photo of her son.

Taehyung and Seokjin glanced at each other. They both perfectly knew what those nightmares truly were, Taehyung had them after all, and he had had his first one when he was sleeping over at the raven’s place.

“He talked about having bad dreams, but as children we didn’t think much of it. It’s normal for children to have nightmares after all,” replied Taehyung, staring into space, twisting his hands. “But I know how visions are, they feel real, and whatever it was that he saw... It must have been pretty violent, and traumatising at such a young age.”

“That’s how the authorities found out about him being a potential oracle,” sighed the middle-aged woman. “I took him to a doctor and he somehow directly understood that Jimin was having visions, not nightmares.”

Seokjin shook his head in defeat, knowing where this was going.

“A week later he was taken in the restricted area to become the new oracle,” she finished.

A deafening silence overtook the room. Taehyung’s ears were ringing, tears welling up in his eyes against his will. Whatever had happened to Jimin in there probably was still happening right now, and the oracles’ bodies weren’t returned to their families for proper funerals because they actually weren’t truly dead. If he was chosen tonight, it would be his fate too.

“But where is he now?” ended up asking Seokjin, staring at the bed. It really looked like someone had just slept in it, and the raven was pretty sure that if he touched the bed sheets, he would feel some lingering warmth.

“He was taken, again,” replied Jimin’s mother, laying back the frame on the chest of drawers.

“Why? If he’s brain dead, he’s of no use to the government,” frowned Taehyung, clapping his right hand on his mouth when he realised what he had just said.

“I don’t know why, Taehyung-ah. When the authorities come and ask something from you, you don’t discuss it, you just obey without a word.”

The brunet smiled apologetically, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Honestly boys, I can only suggest you to run away,” said Mrs. Park, walking out of the room.

“What?” uttered Seokjin in disbelief, following her, Taehyung on his heels. “Run away? How? We’ll be dead the moment we set a foot outside of the tree.”

“How do you know that?” retorted the woman, smiling at him mischievously.

Both young adults froze. That oh-so-familiar smile almost boring a hole in their hearts and minds. They could perfectly remember how Jimin would do something reckless and shot them that smile before going for it. He often ended up hurting himself, but he would always say that it was worth it.

“Just think about it, boys. Although Jimin was taken away today, there will still be a harvest in the fourth district, and the chosen one might as well be you, Taehyung-ah,” she said, looking straight into the brunet’s eyes.

He looked away from that piercing gaze. The woman’s composure had completely changed between when she had invited them in and now.

“Just be selfish for once and save your lives before it’s too late,” she said as they walked out of the quarters. “The outside world isn’t as dangerous as the government wants us to believe.”

She closed the door behind them before they had the time to react. Seokjin glanced at Taehyung, wondering what the brunet had in mind now. They had learnt more than they thought they would by visiting Jimin’s mother, and now they knew how Taehyung would eventually finish. Nobody would ever come out of the restricted area, not potential oracles at least.

“We have to get Jimin out of there, and then we’ll leave,” whispered the younger man, glaring at the ceiling, no doubt wishing he could share a piece of his mind with the government’s officials.

“Tae…”

“I don’t care what you think, hyung, I’m doing this, with or without you.”

The raven heaved a sigh, running his right hand over his face. There was no way he would let his best friend do this on his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, this is yet another fanfic I'm starting, but this is one of my babies, I'm not gonna lie. I had the idea since I was 15 and I first started writing it for another fandom in 2017 only so... Let's get it!
> 
> I hope you're liking it so far and that you'll stick around for what's coming next. It won't take too long for the other characters to appear, trust me.
> 
> Join me on my Twitter [@minmoanie](https://twitter.com/minmoanie) if you want to talk! You can also come and ask me questions on my [cc](https://curiouscat.me/minmoanie) if you want ♡
> 
> Kudos and comments (respectful please) are always appreciated ♡


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Without me, they could all be dead already…”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not a native speaker.
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/minmoanie)  
>  [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/minmoanie)  
>  [Spotify playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6i1SbB69UssdWV8tTXPmzZ?si=DExCR-ACTlyOraWxIrvM4A)

A backpack on his back and a duffel bag thrown over his shoulder, Seokjin was anxiously waiting in front of Taehyung’s quarters while the brunet was packing his own belongings. The raven still couldn’t quite fathom how he had ended up agreeing to breaking in yet another restricted area and then fleeing the tree, but apparently that was the plan and there was no going back. The only reason he could find to explain his decision to do it was his affection for the brunet, but that was it. He didn’t care much about Jimin, no matter how much he loved him as a child, he’d rather directly go to the base of the tree and break their way out rather than risk their liberty, and especially their lives, to save someone who either way was sort of dead. However, Taehyung seemed to really want to discover what was going on in there as well as get their childhood friend out of there. There was no way Seokjin could dissuade him, the brunet was just as stubborn as a mule, but he couldn’t really blame the other, he probably would want to know too if he were in his shoes.

He looked at his watch and frowned, it was already half past seven, they only had one hour and a half left to get out, otherwise Taehyung might be chosen as an oracle this time.

Just as the thoughts crossed Seokjin’s mind, the front door was opened and the brunet slipped out of his quarters.

“Sorry, my sister kept on asking what I was doing,” he sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

“Is she going to talk to your mum? Because if she does, we’re fucked, you know that, right?” asked Seokjin, starting to walk.

“She’ll keep quiet, she’s just as worried as we are about my fate,” the other replied, following his best friend.

“So...”

“So I think she understood pretty well why I was packing, and I think she’d rather have me go out there than be locked up as an oracle,” replied Taehyung, rolling his eyes as if the answer was obvious.

“I hope you’re right,” whispered Seokjin, glancing around.

He couldn’t help but wonder if the authorities had restored the security cameras in the district. They were shut down most of the time, turning on only when there was something suspicious happening, for example someone entering the wrong password to a restricted area, but he still couldn’t stop himself from worrying about it. The authorities’ behaviour had changed lately, he wouldn’t be surprised if their next step would be to keep a close eye on every potential oracle. Moreover, if someone saw them, they’d definitely know they were up to something. Thankfully, most people were already at home, waiting for the authorities to do whatever they’d planned to do by ordering the citizens to stay inside their quarters. In Seokjin’s mind there was no doubt that it was yet another harvest, and he was pretty sure everybody thought the same.

The two young adults stopped in front of the lift, glancing at each other. The raven let out a shaky sigh as he looked at the electronic lock. He was pretty sure his father hadn’t changed his access code, the man didn’t have to, nobody lived with him anymore, but Seokjin still felt anxiety creeping in. Everything was on him, if the code didn’t work, he had no idea how they’d enter without getting caught the moment they stepped in.

“Just do it, hyung,” murmured Taehyung, his right hand on Seokjin’s shoulder.

“If it doesn’t work, I–”

“It will work, don’t worry about that,” cut him off the brunet, shooting him his signature boxy smile.

The raven nodded and slowly typed in the code, holding his breath. As he saw a green light switch on and heard a distinctive _ping_ as the doors opened, his eyes widened in disbelief. His father really hadn’t changed his code, after _seven fucking years_ , that shithead hadn’t changed his security code. It almost made Seokjin laugh.

“Now hurry, we need to do this as fast as possible,” whispered Taehyung, keeping the doors open with his hands.

“One hour, we can’t stay more than that inside. If we haven’t found Jimin by then...”

“I know, we can’t risk staying longer just for him,” sighed the younger one, walking inside.

Seokjin knew that the other wasn’t pleased with the time limit, but they had no choice. It was either that, or they ended up in jail, if not worse.

The doors closed behind him as soon as he stepped inside. He blinked a few times as he took in his surroundings. He hadn’t expected it to be so dark considering how bright the public areas were. There were a few red lights here and there, but they barely enlightened anything, they barely cast any light on the sleek black walls and ground. It definitely changed from the outside of the trunk.

“How are we even going to find him in here? We’ve no idea on what floor the oracles are,” grumbled the raven, smacking his face. He hadn’t thought about that even one bit. The restricted area went from the roots of the tree up to the top of it. They could spend hours, if not days, trying to find what they were looking for.

“They should be around this level, I don’t think the government would want them too far from them,” replied Taehyung, deciding to go to the left.

“At least we know where the cars are,” mumbled the other, listening carefully in case someone came in their direction.

“Don’t be so negative, hyung,” groaned the brunet, rolling his eyes.

“I just think that we should leave now, what would we even do with Jimin? He’s brain dead,” stated Seokjin.

“For all we know, they might have fooled Mrs. Park. Maybe they put Jimin into an artificial coma and just lied to her,” the other retorted, glaring at his best friend over his shoulder.

The raven looked away, not replying to that, as he felt his ears redden. He hadn’t thought about it, but he should have. Turning right and then walking up a dozen of stairs, he wondered why Jimin would be put into a medically-induced coma instead of being used as an oracle. It made no sense, if he was a real oracle, they didn’t need to actually do such a thing. He understood that the authorities didn’t want any civilian to know what was going on in the inside, but oracles never got out of here alive anyway, so what was the point?

They turned another corner, but Taehyung came to a full stop.

“What’s this noise?”

Seokjin stopped in his tracks when he heard Taehyung’s question, almost bumping into the brunet. He pricked up his ears and frowned, there seemed to be some kind of constant buzzing. As they moved forward, the sound kept on getting louder. It definitely was close by. He noticed further in the hallway that light was coming from what he could only guess was a room. He felt Taehyung grasping at his left arm as they kept on walking.

“Do you want me to check what it is before you look?” whispered the raven, feeling how tense his best friend was.

“Maybe it would be better that way,” mumbled the brunet, looking down at his feet. He knew he must have looked and sounded weak, but he had a bad feeling, whatever was inside that room sent him bad vibes, which he usually could overcome, but this was on another level, it didn’t just feel bad, it felt _sinister_ , it almost felt like death.

He glanced up at Seokjin’s dark figure as the raven went ahead without him, peeking round the corner that led to where the light came from. He seemed to freeze for a moment, but he quickly shook his head and then disappeared inside, leaving Taehyung alone in the dark hallway, a red light flickering above him. Twisting his hands in dread, the brunet waited for his best friend to come back, but it seemed like an eternity had passed and Seokjin still hadn’t come out of the room.

“Hyung..?” he whispered, taking a few steps forward.

He could feel his stomach churning in dread, his bad feeling getting worse. It was his decision to come here, but now he was starting to wonder if it was a good idea. Maybe they really should have left the tree directly. He turned around the corner and froze in his spot, his eyes widening. Seokjin was standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by a dozen of glass coffins.

“What the...” started the brunet, but his voice died out as he talked, disbelief and a hint of fear written all over his face.

The raven spun around when he heard the other, rushing to him.

“Taehyung-ah, you should have waited for me to come back!” he exclaimed, forcing the brunet to turn around so he couldn’t look at the coffins.

You were taking so long,” murmured the other, looking down at his trembling hands.

“I’m sorry, it’s just...”

The raven couldn’t even find the right words to describe how he felt, to describe what was right before his eyes. All the people in those glass coffins were people he knew, some of them were children who disappeared just like Taehyung had pointed out earlier, others were friends. They were all here, seemingly peacefully asleep.

“Are they dead?” asked the brunet, risking a glance over his shoulder.

“I don’t think so,” sighed the raven, walking back to the middle of the room, Taehyung following him. “There are medical devices linked to each coffin, it’s like...”

“Like Jimin,” ended the other, looking around.

Seokjin nodded, walking to one of the coffins in the left corner of the room, near a closed door. So far, out of the thirteen coffins in the room, three were occupied by friends.

“Is that Jisoo?” asked Taehyung, looking at the coffin near which Seokjin was standing.

“Yeah,” muttered the raven, looking up at the brunet.

He looked dejected, probably just like Seokjin did. They had suspected that some of their friends were actually locked in here, but it only really dawned on them now.

“We need to get them out of here,” uttered Taehyung, looking closely at the medical devices linked to Jisoo’s coffin.

“What? Tae, we can’t do that!”

“You want to leave them behind? In this state?” asked the brunet, looking at his best friend with a mix of disgust and disbelief.

“No, of course not,” groaned the raven, running a hand through his hair. “But we came here for Jimin first, and if we get them all out of here... I’m worried that our families will get in more trouble than they already will be once we've left,” he explained. “We don’t even know how to wake them up anyway.”

“But those are our friends...”

“Listen, once we’re out of the tree, we will find a way, but right now we can’t think of anyone else but us, and Jimin,” interrupted the older one. “If we even find him though, because in case you haven’t noticed, he’s not in here.”

Just as he ended his sentence, footsteps could be heard coming from the hallway. Both young adults spontaneously crouched down behind the coffin, although later on Seokjin would think that it was ridiculous because everything was in glass and it wouldn’t have helped them hide in any way.

“You’re two lucky bastards,” chuckled the newcomer, his deep voice sounding oddly familiar to both Taehyung and Seokjin.

They both straightened up, a gasp escaping Taehyung’s lips as he saw who was standing in the doorframe. His hair might have been blond now, but the sharp cat-like eyes, the button nose, the pale skin… He would recognise him anywhere.

“Yoongi hyung?”

“It’s been a while, you two,” smiled the man, walking up to them.

Seokjin observed as the blond and the brunet hugged, frowning slightly as he noticed marks on the smaller man’s arms. He looked thin, way too thin, the dark circles under his eyes as well as the dark glimmer in them catching the older’s attention immediately. Yoongi never was very expressive, but his eyes were, and right now, they looked almost dull, something Seokjin had never witnessed before. However, what struck him the most was how younger he looked. Sure, Yoongi was only twenty-four, he barely was a few months younger than Seokjin, but he looked a few years younger at least, and the raven knew that wasn’t how Yoongi had looked before he disappeared four months ago.

When the brunet and the blond pulled away, Taehyung could also get a better look at their childhood friend, and just like Seokjin, he was confused by the other’s appearance. He was gone for barely four months, how could he change so much in such a short period of time?

“There are things going on in here that you couldn’t even imagine,” said Yoongi, as if he could read Taehyung and Seokjin’s minds.

“What happened to you?” asked Seokjin, folding his arms.

“I’d love to catch up with you guys and explain everything that’s happening in here, but you can’t stay,” sighed the blond, obviously evading the question, which made the older of the three frown. “You’re lucky that nobody’s here for the moment, they’re all getting ready for the harvest.”

Shivers ran down Taehyung’s spine, his face going pale, as he met Seokjin’s gaze. They were right, it was indeed another harvest that was taking place tonight.

“You’re taking a big risk by coming here, Taehyung-ah, someone else could have been in the control room,” continued Yoongi.

“How could you even be in the control room? Aren’t you a potential oracle?” asked Seokjin, looking suspiciously at the other.

Seokjin just couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was odd. Why wasn’t Yoongi in a coffin like all the others? They all were potential oracles, what was different about him?

“I _am_ an oracle, I just managed to win their trust, that’s why I can move freely,” replied Yoongi, feeling how wary the other was.

He wasn’t going to judge him, he certainly would have felt the same way if he came across an oracle walking freely in the hallways while all the others were locked in coffins. However, they really had no time to waste. He knew they had little time left before a guard came back to the control room. If Taehyung and Seokjin weren’t gone by then, Yoongi didn’t want to even think about what would happen to them. He had had enough trouble taking the authorities off Hoseok’s back, he knew he wouldn’t manage this time if those two were caught. This time he wouldn’t be able to lie his way through it, and the authorities wouldn’t just try to brainwash him like they did with Hoseok.

“I know you don’t have any reason to trust me considering I’m not with all of them,” he said, gesturing toward the coffins. “But you really have little time left until a guard comes back to the control room, you should leave.”

“We can’t,” replied Taehyung. “We need to find Jimin, where is he?”

“Why would you want to see Jimin?” frowned the blond, straightening up.

“Why does it matter to you? Just tell us where he is,” retorted Seokjin, rolling his eyes.

“He’s in the other room,” sighed Yoongi, pointing at the closed door. “I don’t see what you’d want to do with him, he’s out for a while.”

“What do you mean?” asked the brunet, confused.

Yoongi shook his head and walked to the door, taking a keycard out of his jacket pocket. He unlocked the door, feeling the others’ eyes in his back. He blinked a few times as he was blinded by the brightness of the completely white room. All the spotlights were set on Jimin, who lay on a hospital bed. The brunet waited for the other two to walk in, already foreseeing their reactions to the boy’s appearance. He didn’t know himself what it was exactly that made them change like this, that made them look younger than they truly were, but it definitely was something in the serum every new oracle was injected. Moreover, Jimin’s whole body was marred. Yoongi could only guess where all those scars came from, having noticed some on a few of the other oracles too.

“This isn’t Jimin.”

He looked sideways at the brunet, keeping himself from rolling his eyes. He looked different, younger, that should have been enough of a hint as to how Jimin would look too.

“Jimin’s supposed to be twenty-two, this person looks younger than that,” uttered Seokjin, walking around the bed, his gaze set on the sleeping blond. “And he has black hair, not blond,” added the raven, frowning. “What the hell are they doing to you, Yoongi?”

“I honestly don’t have time to even try to explain what happens in here,” groaned Yoongi, running a hand through his hair. “I couldn’t even explain it if I wanted. I don’t even know myself what really happens to us.”

Taehyung stared at the blond, his eyebrows knitted together. “How can you not know what’s happening to you? To everyone in here?” he asked.

“All I know is that the oracle before Jimin was taken in died prematurely, and there was something weird about her death, too,” explained Yoongi, looking at the ECG machine. “Jimin was harvested two weeks after her death. One way or another, the authorities came to the conclusion that he was one-of-a-kind because he had unusually strong visions for a kid of his age.”

“Why did they send him back to his mum then? And in a coma? They told her he was brain dead,” frowned Seokjin, looking up at the other brunet.

“That, I don’t know. One thing’s for sure though, he’s not brain dead. Look at the screen behind you,” said Yoongi while Seokjin turned around. “That’s his brain right now. As you can see, it’s working perfectly fine. He’s probably having one of those ridiculous forced visions they’ve been giving us lately.”

Taehyung glanced at the screen before walking to the bed, cautiously grabbing his childhood friend’s right hand. He had electrodes all over his chest and forehead as well as an IV stuck in his left forearm. It might have been years since he’d last seen him, but Taehyung could still see Jimin in the young man lying in front of him. He still had the same soft facial features. His lips had become plumper and his skin paler though, but it didn’t quite surprise Taehyung. The skin tone definitely was due to not going out at all, being in a coma for thirteen years, and for the rest he must have been taking after his mother. Taehyung somehow wanted to see his eyes, he wanted to know if they were still amber, or if they had changed colour just like his hair. However, as he let his gaze roam further over Jimin’s body, Taehyung’s stomach churned. The blond was covered in scars, most of them white, meaning they were old. But a few were new, the brunet could see it by their reddishness.

“You’ve seen him, now leave, please,” said Yoongi, breaking the silence that had slowly settled in the room.

“We didn’t come here just to see him,” whispered Taehyung, glancing over his shoulder at the blond. “We’re here to take him with us.”

Yoongi’s eyes widened, his gaze going from Taehyung to Seokjin, not quite sure he had heard the brunet well.

“We’re leaving this place, and he absolutely wants to take Jimin so…” Seokjin said, trying to find a rational explanation, although there was none. They were risking their life for someone who maybe didn’t even remember them.

The blond bit his lower lip, glancing at the door behind him. Their plan was kind of crazy, but it wasn’t exactly impossible, he had almost done it before after all. Although they probably hadn’t thought about it, they had chosen the right time, most of the guards would be in the fourth district to make sure nobody left it or that no disturbance happened. However, fleeing with Jimin wouldn’t be that easy. Yoongi knew for a fact that the blond wouldn’t wake up anytime soon, he actually wasn’t even sure that he would wake up on his own. Jimin would be a burden more than anything else to Seokjin and Taehyung.

“He would slow you down,” said Yoongi, looking Taehyung in the eye. “There’s no telling when he will wake up. How would you carry him around once your car runs out of gas? How would you keep him alive if he can’t feed himself?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “For all I know, if you take Jimin away while he’s still in this state, he might stay like this forever.”

“Why does it matter to you?” asked Seokjin, walking up to him.

“I don’t want you two to get caught because of him,” sighed the blond.

“We won’t. The moment we’re out, you know they won’t follow us,” retorted Seokjin.

Yoongi looked away with a _tsk_ , knowing his hyung was right. The moment Hoseok had set a foot outside, in the contaminated area, the guards had given up on following him. Truth be told, he didn’t quite understand the way the authorities operated. There were more and more records of the outside world being survivable, the levels of radioactivity had lowered to an extent that someone in good enough health could adapt. He didn’t know that when Hoseok and him had tried to run away, but after months of snooping around, he had ended up coming across all those reports on the outside world. This discovery actually was the only thing that kept him sane, that made him believe that Hoseok was still alive, somewhere in the outside world.

“I don’t want him to be here,” murmured Taehyung, looking down at Jimin from the corner of the eye. “I want him to have a life, and not be stuck in here as an oracle. He hasn’t lived at all, we were barely nine when he was taken away…”

Yoongi stared at the brunet, conflicted. He couldn’t say that he didn’t understand his feelings, because he did; unlike the rest of them, Jimin really had had no chance to taste life. Moreover, he had been ready to sacrifice himself to save Hoseok so he would get a chance to live freely, so really, who was he stop those two from taking Jimin away?

The blond groaned as he ran a hand through his hair, looking away. Truth be told, if at least one oracle could get out of this hell, then so be it. Although he knew that if Jimin escaped, it would mean hell for the remaining oracles, it was still better that way. There was something about Jimin’s visions that made the authorities more paranoid and authoritarian than usual. Nobody exactly knew what it was that the blond had foreseen when he was a child, but it somehow had triggered something in the upper social strata.

Yoongi sighed, looking back at his childhood friends.“Take the electrodes off, we gotta be fast,” he said, tying up the blond to the bed so there would be no risk for him to fall while they moved the wheeled bed. Moving him to a stretcher would take too much time and maybe it wasn’t the best solution, considering the blond was only half-dressed.

Taehyung gaped at his friend, although his lips slowly spread into a boxy grin. He knew Yoongi wouldn’t stop them in the end. He turned around and ripped the electrodes off the blond’s body while Seokjin stuffed his duffle bag with infusion bags.

“Hurry,” uttered the blond, opening the door once again. “We don’t even have thirty minutes left before someone comes back.”

Seokjin walked behind the bed to push it while Taehyung was already walking out.

“We can’t take the usual lift, we could come across a civilian,” Yoongi said, getting in front of them to lead them through the maze that formed the inside of the trunk.

“How are we going to get to the base of the tree then?” asked Seokjin. “We can’t use the backstairs with Jimin in this bed.”

“There’s another lift,” replied the blond, pointing at the end of the hallway they had just turned in.

“How come you know the place so well, hyung? It’s huge, I’m pretty sure even the employees don’t know it that well,” said Taehyung, running next to Yoongi.

“I’ve been looking around, a lot,” replied the oracle with a shrug, a small smile tugging at his lips.

“And why haven’t you escaped then? You probably know when you have the highest chance to succeed, you could be out and free right now,” said Seokjin, frowning slightly.

Yoongi looked over his shoulder for a second, his smile faltering.

“Without me, they could all be dead already…”

Taehyung slightly slowed down, biting his lower lip. He wasn’t sure there was any other place closer to hell than this. He had noticed the marks on Yoongi’s arms. He maybe wasn’t scarred like Jimin, but all those needle marks… Yoongi wasn’t completely safe, no matter how much he tried to make them believe that he had the authorities’ trust.

“Be patient with Jimin,” Yoongi said as he opened the lift’s doors with a swipe card.

Taehyung and Seokjin glanced at each other, puzzled.

“What do you mean?” asked the raven while he pushed the bed inside.

“You don’t know what he’s been through,” replied the blond, pressing on the lowest level’s button. “Hell, I don’t know myself,” he sighed as he watched the doors close behind Taehyung. “But I’m guessing that he wasn’t well treated when he was conscious, no matter his age. It probably got even worse as he grew older... So please, when he wakes up, be patient with him, there’s no telling how he’ll react.”

Taehyung softly smiled, running his fingers through the sleeping blond’s long hair. “Don’t worry about that, we’ll take good care of him,” he assured.

Yoongi slightly nodded, noticing that they had reached their level. He was silently dreading that there would be a guard or a mechanic, if there was one, he had no idea what they would do, how they would react. Thankfully though, as the doors opened, he directly picked up on the silence that filled the garage.

“Do you guys actually know how to drive?” he asked, walking out of the lift.

“Seokjin hyung does,” replied Taehyung, following him. “He learnt with…” his voice trailed off, not wanting to go any further. He was pretty sure Yoongi would get who he didn’t want to mention, and by the understanding look he received, he didn’t need to worry about that.

Seokjin stayed silent, pushing Jimin’s bed. He knew what Taehyung was doing, never mentioning his father. It was a sensitive subject, and he was somewhat grateful to the brunet for being so considerate. However, at the same time he knew he couldn’t forever avoid mentioning the man. He unfortunately had learnt some useful tricks from him after all.

“Alright, you should be using this model,” said Yoongi, opening the doors of a black SUV. “It’s one of the last models that came out before the catastrophe. It doesn’t make much noise and it’s one of the rare cars here to have a completely full tank, most of the others have been used by some shitheads who thought it’d be fun to waste it inside here... I think it also has solar panels, but we haven’t really seen the sun much the past centuries so… Don’t count on that.”

He started folding down the seats in the back with Taehyung’s help while Seokjin tried to fold the legs of Jimin’s bed. The raven wasn’t quite sure it would be safe to put Jimin like that in the back of the car, but they didn't really have a choice. An SUV definitely was the best choice to go out there.

“Where will we go though?” wondered Taehyung, looking at the huge garage door. “We’re fleeing, but we have no idea where to head first.”

Seokjin looked up at his best friend, surprised Taehyung hadn’t thought about it before.

“Hoseok and I were planning on going north, towards Seoul,” said Yoongi, walking up to Seokjin so they could carry Jimin inside the car.

“That’s what I thought we’d do,” replied Seokjin as he crouched down to lift the bed. “From what I read it’s one of the only cities that could still offer some sort of real shelter, it wasn’t as destroyed as the rest of the country. Maybe there are even some people left there.”

Taehyung stared at his best friend, feeling slightly silly for not thinking of that before. He was the one who had made the decision to leave after their discussion with Jimin’s mother, yet he hadn’t thought much outside of getting a car to flee.

“Why don’t you come with us, Yoongi hyung?” he ended up asking after his hyungs were done fastening Jimin’s bed in the car.

“As I said before, I’m what’s keeping the others alive,” said the blond, typing in a code on the control panel to open the garage door.

Taehyung couldn’t help but feel bad for leaving Yoongi behind. The blond would be watching friends leaving for the second time, and yet again he would stay behind to save their arses.

“Don’t worry about me, Taehyung-ah, I’m fine here,” he assured with a smile, patting the brunet’s shoulder. “Now hurry, I still need to go back upstairs.”

“We’ll try to get you all out of here,” said the brunet, hugging his friend.

“Don’t promise something like that. I don’t want you to come back here, ever. That’s what I told Hoseok, and that’s what I’m telling you too. It’s too risky for you,” retorted Yoongi.

Seokjin shook his head, smiling softly. Getting that out of Taehyung’s head wouldn’t be an easy task. He was pretty sure that Taehyung felt bad for leaving, for having a chance to escape this place while the others stayed behind. Although they still had to discover if they could really live in the outside world, perhaps they wouldn’t make it out there with the radiations.

“I’ll keep an eye on both of them if this reassures you,” said Seokjin, putting his worry aside, hugging Yoongi this time.

“I count on you. I don’t want those two to come back here as long as oracles are treated like objects, they wouldn’t make it through, especially not Taehyung,” whispered the blond in the other’s ear.

Seokjin nodded as they broke apart, noticing from the corner of the eye that Taehyung had taken a seat in the car.

“This is all I managed to gather on oracles,” said Yoongi, handing a file to the raven. “I didn’t have time to go through all of it yet, but maybe you’ll find a way to help Taehyung with his visions, and also wake up Jimin.”

“You really think Jimin won’t wake up on his own?”

“I can’t tell for sure, we never are off drugs long enough to know if we can wake up naturally.”

Seokjin hummed while he put the file in his backpack. “Thank you, for everything,” he said, quickly hugging Yoongi again before getting in the driver’s seat.

The blond slightly smiled, watching the car drive off in the outside world, soon disappearing into the woods. “You’re welcome…” he whispered, closing the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... You met Yoongi (and Jimin, kinda). I won't lie, leaving him behind stings, but I mean... They really can't just all flee, it would be too easy. It won't be the last you see of him though!
> 
> I hope you're liking this so far, the pace is kinda picking up, although not /too much/ either, and it won't take long for other people to appear!
> 
> What do you think Jimin could have seen? i know I haven't revealed much yet, but any guesses out there?
> 
> Join me on my Twitter [@minmoanie](https://twitter.com/minmoanie) if you want to talk! You can also come and ask me questions on my [cc](https://curiouscat.me/minmoanie) if you want ♡
> 
> Kudos and comments (respectful please) are always appreciated ♡


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Far in the horizon stood one monster of glass and steel, the tree built in Incheon’s port._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not a native speaker.
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/minmoanie)  
>  [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/minmoanie)  
>  I created a [Spotify playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6i1SbB69UssdWV8tTXPmzZ?si=DExCR-ACTlyOraWxIrvM4A) for this story, so if you feel like listening to some of the songs I listen to while writing this, just go ahead! 

“You didn’t really get your answer,” said Seokjin, squinting slightly as they entered the woods, switching on the lights of the car.

“It doesn’t matter, I saw enough,” sighed Taehyung, looking over his shoulder as the tree disappeared. “He should have come with us, we shouldn’t have left him behind.”

He grabbed Jimin’s hand that was on his side and slightly squeezed it. He understood that Yoongi wanted to stay behind to take care of the other oracles, but he was putting himself in danger this way. Taehyung wasn’t even quite sure how their friend would find a way to make it look like they had escaped without any help, without _his_ help.

“It doesn’t feel right to leave him behind, I know,” sighed Seokjin, glancing at Taehyung.

He didn’t like abandoning Yoongi behind any more than Taehyung did, especially that he really could have left with them. However, the other had been so adamant about being the only person keeping their friends alive, Seokjin just couldn’t go against the blond’s decision. He didn’t seem in a bad state after all, besides the needle marks on his arms, he still looked quite healthy, so Seokjin wanted to believe that the other, and the oracles, would be fine. He had to believe it otherwise it would haunt him until they found a solution to get them all out of the tree, which he honestly wasn’t sure they’d ever find. Trees were like fortresses as far as he knew, no loopholes had been left for possible outsiders to get in.

“I don’t think we should drive at night,” muttered the raven, avoiding a pothole.

“Shouldn’t we actually get away from there as much as possible?” frowned the brunet, looking at his best friend.

“We should,” sighed Seokjin. “But it’s pitch black, the forest is so dense, I can only see so far. I’ve literally no idea where I’m driving, Tae, for all I know we could be driving straight to a cliff or something, we’re not that far from the coast after all.”

“But we’re on a road right now, can’t you drive the further you can, as long as we’re on this road we should be fine, right?”

Seokjin glanced at Taehyung for a second before setting his eyes back on the road. He knew they were heading north, but that really was all he knew. He understood that Taehyung wanted to get away from the tree, he wanted it too, but he really didn’t want to risk anything. The authorities couldn’t follow them, if there was something he was sure of, it was that. They didn’t send anyone out of the tree, no matter how the radiation levels might have dropped, they still wouldn’t risk it. Considering they hadn’t tried to follow Hoseok, they wouldn’t follow them either.

The raven heaved a sigh, tapping his forefinger on the gear stick.

“Alright, I’ll keep on driving as long as the road doesn’t change direction, but if it does, we’ll stop and wait for the sun to rise.”

 _If it does rise_ , he thought, not looking at Taehyung. He could feel his eyes on him, and then one of the brunet’s hands slowly slid over his own that was still on the gear stick.

“Thanks,” whispered Taehyung, a soft smile stretching his lips.

“Thank me when we’re out of here,” replied the raven, turning his palm upwards so he could squeeze his best friend’s hand, eyes still focused ahead.

He really had no idea what Taehyung was going through at the moment, he wasn’t a potential oracle after all, but after seeing their friends in those glass coffins, and especially after seeing Jimin in that room, linked to all those medical devices… There was no way in hell that he would let the authorities take Taehyung too. Being an oracle was a curse, not a blessing. They became tools, they weren’t human anymore, not in the government’s eyes at least.

They kept on going for another hour, but then Seokjin noticed a road curve. He had noticed that Taehyung had been dozing off, and he wished he could have kept on driving, giving him some rest, but he didn’t want to risk going in the wrong direction. Moreover they had a limited amount of fuel, so he couldn’t waste it in any way.

“We’re still not out of it.”

Taehyung had noticed the change in Seokjin’s driving, which had stirred him up from his sleepy state. He knew this forest was big, nature had taken over a lot of territory after the catastrophe, he could see it from the tree, but he didn’t think it would take so long to get out of it, especially by car. They had been on the road for at least two hours.

“There’s a change in the road direction, it might be nothing but it’s better to make a break anyway, we need to sleep, tomorrow’s going to be a long day,” said Seokjin, slowing down.

“Are we just going to stop in the middle of the road and sleep though?” wondered the brunet.

“I’ll pull over and we’ll sleep one at a time. I’ll keep watch for now, you can sleep,” replied the raven, turning off the ignition.

“Keep watch? Hyung, we’re all alone here,” snorted the other.

The raven shot a stern look to his best friend. “Really now, Taehyung-ah? This is our first time out of the tree, we’ve no idea what’s waiting for us in the outside world,” he started, noticing how the brunet seemed to be shrinking in his spot. “And did you forget that we have someone in a coma?” he asked, pointing at the blond who lay in the back of the car.

“Sorry, I just…”

Seokjin raised a hand, gesturing the brunet to stop talking. “Just go to sleep, please. I’ll wake you up when your time is over,” sighed the raven, grabbing his backpack.

He barely heard Taehyung’s small approval before the brunet curled up, his back turned to Seokjin. The raven shook his head while pinching the bridge of his nose, knowing he might have slightly overreacted. He could only assume that the stress this day had caused and the tiredness were finally catching up with him.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, taking out Yoongi’s files.

He didn’t receive any answer, and when he hovered over Taehyung to look at his face, he noticed his best friend was already fast asleep.

“Well, that was fast,” he thought out loud, settling back in his seat.

He looked down at the several files Yoongi had handed to him. There were five of them and each one had a title; one was on the tree in general, three on the oracles, and one on Jimin in particular. Apparently Yoongi had also slid in a map with the most recent changes in South Korea’s topography. Seokjin put it over the dashboard and decided to open one of the files on the oracles. None of them were very thick so he guessed not much could be found with Yoongi’s access codes, but it was still better than nothing. However, the more Seokjin read the documents, the more he came to the conclusion that the government didn’t seem to know everything about oracles either, or it was a very well kept secret, and only a few people knew about it. A lot of the documents had parts blacked out, he could only guess those held crucial information.

After reading the files, Seokjin still couldn’t tell where oracles came from, how some of the people in trees could foresee the future and others couldn’t. Was it genetic or was it due to experiments? Or was it maybe due to the environment? Radiations could maybe have caused it. There didn’t seem to be any answer in the files Yoongi had given him, which meant Seokjin couldn’t help Taehyung with his visions. The raven wished to find a solution so Taehyung would get rid of them, because they were more akin to nightmares than dreams. He didn’t really know what the brunet saw, but he knew it was taking a toll on him. Over the years he had withdrawn into himself, he was more discreet and he tried not to talk too much about his visions.

The only thing Seokjin had learned through those files was that the authorities, or at least the people responsible for the oracles, triggered the visions with drugs. This explained the needle marks on Yoongi’s arms, and it might also explain the aging as it seemed all the oracles ended up looking younger than they really were. Although it went against everything Seokjin knew about drugs, as he had always heard that it always did more wrong than good to the body.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair, and turned around to look at Jimin. He seemed peaceful, which made the raven wonder if he had any visions in his current state. He wasn’t quite sure how a medically-induced coma worked, but he sort of hoped the blond wasn’t dreaming. From what he had managed to get out of Taehyung, visions were most of the time gruesome, there barely was anything positive in them. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be trapped in those dreams, to have no escape route, to have nobody to talk to about what he foresaw.

He turned back to the front, grabbing the only file he hadn’t touched yet. If he were to be honest, he wasn’t quite sure he wanted to read it just yet. It was one thing to read documents about oracles in general, some dating from years _–even centuries–_ back, but it was another thing to read a file that was solely made for Jimin’s case. Yet, Seokjin still opened it, his eyes widening and his throat closing, as if a hand of steel was choking him, when he laid eyes upon the pictures that had scattered down his lap. He slowly picked up two of them, quickly taking in the details, his guts twisting in disgust. He felt nauseous. He hadn’t really seen Jimin’s body yet, but those photographs were enough to make him not want to. He had already noticed the white scars and needle marks on his arms, but the rest of his body? In what state could he possibly be? Considering how in those pictures he could clearly see some dark bruises and deep lacerations marring the younger’s skin, he could only imagine how bad it must still be. The authorities didn’t get any kinder when you got older.

Seokjin stuffed the photos back in the file, slapping it shut as he closed his eyes, his hands shaking. He felt the need to throw them out the window so Taehyung wouldn’t see them, wouldn’t see how Jimin had been treated over the years, but he knew he shouldn't. It wasn’t his decision to make. Taehyung had the right to know what was happening to people like him inside trees, he had the right to know what would have most likely been his fate at some point. Maybe, just maybe, it would also keep him from trying to go back there to save their friends, although knowing him, Seokjin knew it might actually ignite his urge to get them out of there.

The raven sighed heavily and put the file back with the others. When he looked at the dashboard, he noticed it had already been over three hours since they had stopped. He rubbed his eyes, feeling his eyelids close on their own.

“Taehyung-ah,” he whispered, slightly touching the brunet’s shoulder. “It’s your time to keep watch.”

He watched with a soft smile his best friend waking up, grunting as he stretched.

“How long did I sleep?” asked the brunet, yawning.

“Three hours and a half,” replied the raven, changing Jimin’s infusion bag.

Taehyung’s gaze wandered to the files that were spread in front of them.

“What are those?” he asked, frowning.

“Yoongi gave me some files before we left, but there isn’t much in them. Oracles are a well-kept secret,” sighed Seokjin, running his hand over his face after he had put the empty infusion bag in a separate part of his duffle bag.

“Not even an explanation on why we exist?” murmured the brunet, looking down at his hands.

The raven shook his head, lying on his side. This position wasn’t the best, but considering how exhausted he was, he knew he’d fall asleep the moment he closed his eyes.

“You can go through them if you want, maybe you’ll see something I missed,” he said, putting his hand over his mouth as he yawned. “Just… Be careful with Jimin’s file.”

“Alright,” replied Taehyung, watching as Seokjin closed his eyes, confused as to what the raven meant when he warned him about their friend’s file.

He grabbed one of the files, trying to stop his hands from shaking. He closed his eyes, inhaling sharply before exhaling, he needed to calm down. He was out of there, he was safe, the authorities weren’t after them, they were free, _he_ was free. It was hard to believe that they really had done it, that they really had fled the tree, leaving everything they had behind them for the unknown. Somehow he felt selfish, leaving his family behind like this. His sister had directly understood what was going on when she saw him packing, she had even told him to leave as fast as possible and to not look back, but he knew that his family would get in trouble. Seokjin’s family would maybe get away with it because the raven wasn’t a potential oracle, but the brunet was, and he had fled the night of a harvest.

He looked at the file he had picked and gaped at it, reading the title. So he had picked Jimin’s file first. Taehyung let out a shaky breath and looked over his shoulder at the blond before opening the file.

 

**_Subject PJM-1013_ **

**_Subject’s status: oracle_ **

**_Subject’s medical condition: artificial coma_ **

 

The brunet started reading the file, skipping the pictures the moment he got a glimpse of what they portrayed. He wasn’t quite sure he could handle seeing the changes in Jimin’s appearance, already seeing the state he was currently in made the brunet’s stomach churn. Jimin’s marred skin and unnatural blond hair were enough of a hint as to what had happened over the years.

According to the documents Yoongi had managed to gather, Jimin had mostly been at home after the authorities understood he couldn’t help them much, but they still took him away from his parents every month for a week, until a year ago. A year ago they stopped taking him for medical examinations because they thought they had found a better oracle than Jimin, but apparently the blond’s visions still were more accurate than any oracle before. The following paragraphs were blacked out, meaning this was a confidential report Yoongi had managed to access, although he couldn’t completely break the code to have all the information. The only word that wasn’t blacked out was “spirit”, which didn’t quite help Taehyung figure out what those paragraphs could possibly be about. He guessed it was the reason why Jimin was a better oracle, but Taehyung himself had not idea why and how oracles existed, so he had no idea what it was that triggered visions.

The brunet groaned, running a hand through his hair.

“Spirit? What the hell is that?” he muttered, dropping the file in his lap.

He looked outside the window, they were surrounded by nature. The road they were on was the only human trace left, although it was obvious that it was from a long time ago. Taehyung was actually quite surprised that it was still possible to make out the road, he thought that after so many centuries, there wouldn’t be any human traces left, considering human beings lived in trees and hadn’t been out of them since the nuclear catastrophe.

He looked up the trees, wondering if there were any animals left. He guessed wild life had somehow survived, but the forest was still, there was absolutely no noise at all, not even the rustle of the leaves.

He shook his head and went back to reading Jimin’s file. Apparently, Jimin’s vision that had made his mother take him to a doctor was the most important one he ever had, in the eyes of the government at least. Unfortunately, because he was only a child, he hadn’t managed to explain it correctly and the authorities had decided to take the matter in hand. For years they tried to trigger that vision, to make Jimin remember it as he had ended up forgetting it, but nothing worked. They tried a week every month during those so-called checkups, but it never worked so they just put him back into an artificial coma, knowing very well that if they let him go back to his family fully conscious, he would tell his parents what the authorities made him endure.

“Does he even want to be conscious again after everything he went through?” whispered the brunet, staring at his childhood friend.

Being an oracle definitely was a curse, not a blessing, there was no denying it. However, going through Jimin’s file didn’t quite help Taehyung figure out how to wake up the blond. The only idea he could come up with was that because he wasn’t in the tree anymore, Jimin wouldn’t be injected whatever medicine or drug the authorities used to put him into an artificial coma. He could only hope that this would be enough for the blond to wake up, and that they had enough infusion bags until then.

Taehyung closed the file and put it back with the others. Some things just didn’t add up in the reports, there were statements of Jimin being unstable, sometimes even violent, when he was awake, but Taehyung had a hard time believing it. Maybe Jimin did fight, but the brunet was ready to bet that it wasn’t to actually hurt people, he probably just wanted to get out of there, to get a normal life back.

He sighed, feeling slightly defeated, and glanced at Seokjin, running a hand through the raven’s hair for a bit before grabbing the map. They were heading to Seoul, but the priority right now was to get out of the forest. In the tree everything was perceived differently, he never had thought that it would take so long to go through the forest. He thought that in less than two hours they would be out of it, but they had driven for over two hours and he couldn’t see the end of it.

While he opened the map, the brunet thought about how Yoongi had gathered all this. Was Yoongi really not planning on fleeing the tree? The blond couldn’t have known that Seokjin and Taehyung would decide to flee that day, they hadn’t even thought about it before that. The files on oracles weren’t exactly necessary, but the map…

Taehyung closed his eyes, muffling a sob with his hands. They had taken away Yoongi’s chance to escape, to find Hoseok. The least they could do now was to find back Hoseok and to figure out a way to help Yoongi and their friends get out of the tree safely, they owed him that much.

The brunet looked down at the map, trying to figure out where they were. It somehow wasn’t that difficult because Yoongi seemed to have drawn a route on the map with a highlighter. Seokjin and him had both thought about heading to Seoul, so Taehyung guessed it was safe enough to use the itinerary Yoongi had come up with.

“He really should have come with us.”

Taehyung almost shrieked when the raven next to him spoke. He hadn’t noticed that Seokjin had woken up. He directly calmed down when he heard his best friend’s natural squeaky laughter though.

“This isn’t funny, hyung, I thought you were asleep!” he grumbled, punching the other in the arm.

“You haven’t even noticed that four hours went by since you woke up, have you?” snorted the raven.

Taehyung stared at his friend, dumbfounded. Four hours? He looked at the time on the dashboard and his eyes widened. It really had been four hours, had he been so lost in thought?

“Anyway, I can see that Yoongi was ready to flee,” sighed Seokjin, taking the map from Taehyung’s hands.

“He was, and we took that away from him. We took away his freedom,” replied the brunet, looking away.

The raven only hummed in response. He felt guilty about that too, but he knew Taehyung was way more affected by it. Seokjin respected Yoongi’s decision to stay behind, especially that he now knew that if the blond really wanted to leave, he could. He probably knew the tree better than any other civilian, maybe even better than the authorities themselves.

“Alright, I think we can leave now,” suddenly uttered Seokjin, closing the map.

“Really?”

“Yeah, we can follow the road, it should lead us out of the forest.”

“So we could have kept on going instead of pulling over for eight hours…” frowned the brunet.

“Taehyung-ah, as much as I understand you wanting to get as far away as possible from the tree, we still needed to sleep,” sighed the raven. “I was exhausted, and you weren’t any better, you were falling asleep while I was driving.”

The younger opened the mouth to retort, but his best friend was right, it had been a good call to take a break.

“Eat that and then we’ll move again,” said Seokjin, handing a cereal bar and an apple to the brunet, already munching his breakfast.

“Don’t act like my mum,” he groaned, still accepting the food.

“Sometimes it really feels like it…”

Taehyung rolled his eyes, although he couldn’t stop himself from chuckling. It was a complain, but at the same time he liked the way Seokjin took care of him, he couldn’t deny it.

“Did you find something in Jimin’s file?” asked the raven, turning the key in the ignition. “I didn’t read it, I couldn’t.”

“Yes and no,” sighed the brunet, taking a bottle of water out of his bag.

Seokjin glanced at him, puzzled.

“Well, to make it short, Jimin was conscious one week per month for nine years,” started Taehyung. “During that short lapse of time, the authorities would try to make him remember a vision he had when he was nine, or to trigger it again.”

“Which explains the scars…” sighed Seokjin, getting back on the road while Taehyung took a sip of water.

“Yes. Apparently he’s like… A super oracle. His visions are way more accurate than any other oracle before him, but because he was so young, back then he couldn’t really explain the one the authorities are interested in, he didn’t really understand it. The explanation as to why his visions are so good is blacked out though, the only word left in those paragraphs is _spirit_ , and I’ve no idea what that could mean.”

“So we basically stole the government favourite oracle?” wondered Seokjin, grinning as he noticed they were reaching the end of the forest.

They could actually have kept on driving last night, they weren’t so far from the end of the woods, but then they would have been in the open to rest, so maybe taking a break in the forest really had been for the best.

“You could say so,” snorted the brunet. “I also think Jimin might wake up on his own as he isn’t in the tree anymore.”

“Because his body will slowly eliminate the drugs?”

“Yeah. They had to use specific drugs to put him into an artificial coma, so I guess that because he’s not there anymore, the drugs will get out of his system at some point,” explained Taehyung, looking at the blond.

“Hmm… This makes sense, we just have to wait and see, I guess,” said Seokjin, tapping his forefinger on the steering wheel.

The brunet nodded, looking straight ahead. He could see standing far in the horizon one monster of glass and steel; without a doubt a tree, built in Incheon’s port.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit slower, I know, but I can't just rush through it, I mean... I still gotta give you some explanations (although not too much yet, that would be too easy) about what has been happening!
> 
> Next chapter though, we're meeting 2 new characters!
> 
> Join me on my Twitter [@minmoanie](https://twitter.com/minmoanie) if you want to talk! You can also come and ask me questions on my [cc](https://curiouscat.me/minmoanie) if you want ♡
> 
> Kudos and comments (respectful please) are always appreciated ♡


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“How is your home tree not safe for you? Isn’t it suicide for you, tree people, to go outside?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not a native speaker.
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/minmoanie)  
>  [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/minmoanie)  
>  I created a [Spotify playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6i1SbB69UssdWV8tTXPmzZ?si=DExCR-ACTlyOraWxIrvM4A) for this story, so if you feel like listening to some of the songs I listen to while writing this, just go ahead!

“Why did you think about going to Seoul and not somewhere else?” Taehyung asked, stroking Jimin’s left hand.

“You know I’ve always been interested in the outside world,” replied Seokjin with a faint shrug of his shoulders. “Obviously as a civilian I couldn’t access most of the information, but there has always been rumours.”

“I know about the rumours, but that’s all they are, rumours,” frowned the brunet.

“There’s always some truth to rumours, Tae. And maybe there aren’t people actually living there, outside of trees, like the rumours say, but I bet it’s actually possible to live in Seoul,” said the raven, staring at the tree they had had in sight since they had come out of the woods. “The authorities have kept a lot of things secret, they might even have lied about certain things, so… Why not this?”

Taehyung hummed, letting go of Jimin’s hand. He brought his knees up to his chest and folded his arms over them, his gaze set on Incheon’s tree that kept on getting bigger as they approached their destination.

“So what? You think some people _never_ actually lived in trees?”

“Maybe.”

“Hyung, that’s impossible. You know just like me how high the radiation levels were right after the catastrophe, nobody would survive that.”

“There’s no way trees were the only way to live through the catastrophe, Taehyung-ah, there had to be other places,” retorted Seokjin, heaving a sigh. “You followed history classes just like me, you know that everybody was expecting a catastrophe at the time, but there’s no way everybody could make it to trees in time. We already know there might still be some people in zeta station, even if our ancestors lost contact with them, and I’m pretty sure some people built their own shelters, too. They thought a war was about to break out after all, everybody must have had a plan B, or even a plan C in case they couldn’t make it.”

“But it has been centuries… I just don’t get how they would have survived. The land must have been barren, the water toxic…” started Taehyung.

“Listen, I can’t say for sure that we’re going to come across survivors, but we’ll manage no matter what,” sighed Seokjin. “Or do you want to go back and become like Jimin and our friends?” he asked, glancing at Taehyung from the corner of the eye.

The brunet froze in his seat, nibbling his lower lip. He hadn’t meant to sound like he was having doubts, because he wasn’t, there was no way they were going back to their tree. He was just curious, Seokjin had thought about going north, so had Yoongi and Hoseok. He thought that they had more knowledge than him on the outside world and the state it was in, but he now realised that the difference simply was their point of view. They all had access to the same information, but Seokjin, Yoongi and Hoseok tried to stay positive while Taehyung only dwelled on all the issues he could think of. He wasn’t that way usually, but after the things he had seen in his visions… It had taken a toll on him.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like I doubted you,” he whispered, looking at his entwined fingers over his bent knees. “If it weren’t for me, you’d still be peacefully living in the tree.”

“Don’t be silly, I’d have such a boring life without you,” replied Seokjin, smiling softly at the brunet. “I know for now it’s hard to picture how our future will be, we don’t even know what will happen in ten minutes, but we’ll be alright. It might be tough, but it’s still better than you becoming an oracle for the authorities.”

Taehyung smiled back, relieved to know he hadn’t upset his best friend. He trusted Seokjin more than anyone, the raven had left everything behind just for him, just so Taehyung could get a chance at actually having a normal life, as normal as it could be for a potential oracle at least, and as normal as it could be in a world that had been ravaged by a nuclear catastrophe. Seokjin had actually risked his life for that, considering he wasn’t a potential oracle, he was disposable to the authorities. The brunet didn’t want to think about what would have happened to him if they had been caught by someone else than Yoongi.

He looked up, discerning the outline of what remained of the city of Seoul. If he didn’t count the time they had spent resting, they had been on the road for almost seven hours since they had left the forest. He hadn’t thought it would take so long to reach Seoul from their home tree, but then again, he hadn’t taken into account how nature had changed everything, some of the former roads didn’t exist anymore. They were on an old motorway now, but before that they had to go through woods again and drive through muddy plains.

“I didn’t think there would still be so many skyscrapers,” uttered Taehyung in wonder.

Seokjin only nodded in response, his stomach churning. He had a bad feeling. He didn’t know what it was, but his guts were telling him that they weren’t completely safe yet. However, he didn’t voice his concerns. The raven didn’t want to worry his best friend, he knew the brunet was already stressed as it was, he didn’t want to add more pressure, especially that there might as well be nothing. He knew he was slightly overprotective of Taehyung, and maybe that was just this side of him messing with his head.

He kept on driving, glancing a few times at Taehyung, but the other seemed to be enthralled by Seoul. He slightly smiled, taking in the face of the city he had gotten to know through pictures until now. Nature was everywhere, covering the streets, walls and roofs; some trees had even partly grown inside buildings. However, Seokjin’s smile faltered as they entered the centre of the city, his bad feeling just worsening. He had the impression that they were being watched, just like in some areas of their home tree. The heavily overcast sky and the skyscrapers didn’t help in this matter, only making everything more ominous. A chill ran down his spine as he thought he saw a light flicker from the corner of his eye. Was his mind playing tricks on him?

“This is so different from the tree! I never thought I’d actually see buildings like these one day,” said Taehyung excitedly, looking around.

This time Seokjin didn’t smile, pretty sure it wasn’t his imagination. They were being watched. They weren’t alone.

“Wait! There’s light in that building, look, over there! There really are people outside of trees, you were right!”

The raven looked up at the building Taehyung was pointing out, his eyes slowly widening. The whole seventh floor of a building seemed to be lit up, just like Taehyung had said.

“Hold Jimin!”

He barely had time to yell it that he had to break harshly or he would have run over a few men who were standing in line right before the car. He noticed from the corner of the eye that Taehyung had grabbed the sides of Jimin’s bed, keeping it in place as much as possible, a pained look twisting his face. Seokjin shook his head and looked back at the men, freezing in his spot when he noticed some of them had guns pointed right at them.

“Taehyung-ah, don’t move,” he said after he gulped.

His bad feeling wasn’t his mind playing tricks on him after all, they really weren’t safe yet.

“Hyung, what’s going on?” asked the brunet, his eyes widened when he noticed the strangers surrounding the car.

“Just don’t do anything,” replied the raven, stepping out of the car when a masked red-haired man gestured him to do so.

“Hyung!” exclaimed the other, his head snapping to the driver’s side when he heard the door open.

Seokjin shook his head, staring gravely at his best friend, and closed the door behind him. He really hoped Taehyung wouldn’t do anything reckless, they were outnumbered and there was no way they could do something against armed people. They had to cooperate.

“We don’t mean any harm,” he said, raising his hands in the air in sign of surrender.

“We don’t know that,” retorted the redhead, his gun aimed at the raven’s head.

He breathed in heavily, eyes locking with amber, almost golden, orbs.

“You can search the car if you want, there’s nothing in there, no weapons.”

The masked man snorted, an amused glint in his eyes, while the other men chuckled.

“We’re not worried about you having weapons,” he replied, still not putting his gun away. “We know you come from a tree, Seoul and Busan are the only cities where you can still find working cars outside of trees, and if you came from Busan, we’d know.”

“Then what’s the problem?" asked Seokjin, glancing at Taehyung to check that the brunet wasn’t doing anything. "We’re just looking for a safe place to live.”

“How is your home tree not safe for you? Isn’t it suicide for you, tree people, to go outside?” asked the redhead, now staring suspiciously at Seokjin.

“They weren’t safe there,” sighed the raven, slowly pointing at Taehyung and Jimin. “Just look at the blond, he’s in a coma, our authorities put him in that state. I couldn’t risk my best friend ending up like him.”

He tried not to move when the stranger took a step towards the car.

“Trees aren’t as safe as the authorities want us to believe,” continued Seokjin, slowly turning around to observe the man walk around the car.

“What tells me that you aren’t just spies?”

“What the fuck are you talking about? Spies? For those arseholes? They’re killing us!” exclaimed Taehyung, getting out of the car to face the masked redhead.

“Taehyung-ah!”

Seokjin couldn’t believe Taehyung had lost control so easily in such a delicate situation. They were in the crosshairs, they had to keep calm or they would be dead in a matter of seconds. Taehyung knew it, as much as he might have been offended by the redhead’s accusation, he should have kept his calm.

“Feisty,” chuckled the masked man, the muzzle of his gun now right against the brunet’s forehead.

“We didn’t get out of there to be threatened again,” growled Taehyung.

“Taehyung-ah, provoking them won’t help,” Seokjin intervened, still not daring to move.

“Your friend is right, you might want to take it down a notch,” said the redhead, locking eyes with the brunet.

Seokjin frowned when he noticed the man put his gun away, still looking right into Taehyung’s eyes. Taehyung seemed to have frozen in his spot, not even blinking, and so had the stranger. He suddenly grabbed Taehyung’s jaw with his left hand and made the brunet tilt his face up.

“You’re an oracle?” asked the redhead, his eyebrows knitted together.

Seokjin cocked his head to the side, not quite sure how the other could tell that just by staring into Taehyung’s eyes. As far as he knew, there was no physical difference between oracles and other people, and he had spent enough time with the brunet to know that.

“A potential oracle,” replied Taehyung, glaring at the other. “He’s a real oracle, he was picked by the council,” he said, pointing at Jimin.

“There’s no such thing as potential oracles, you’re an oracle or you’re not. The moment you have visions, you’re one,” uttered the man, letting go of the brunet to now look at the sleeping blond.

“It doesn’t work that way in trees,” retorted the brunet, stopping the redhead from opening the trunk. “You’re not opening this, I’m not letting you touch him.”

“Really now? You know there are still half a dozen guns pointed at you, right?” asked the stranger, pushing Taehyung away.

He opened the trunk against Taehyung’s protests, staring at Jimin’s peaceful face. At the same time Seokjin grabbed Taehyung by the wrist to pull him back, whispering to him not to do anything. They had to show those people they meant no harm, fighting against them wouldn’t help their case.

“Wait a minute, did you take him away from your tree’s authorities?” asked the redhead, looking back at them. “You said he was chosen by the council.”

“We couldn’t just leave him behind,” replied Taehyung. “He’s our childhood friend, he’s been used by the authorities for thirteen years, he has the right to a normal life.”

The redhead stared at them, stone-faced.

“There’s no way I’m letting you stay here.”

“What?”

Seokjin’s heart sunk when he heard those words. He had been expecting them, he couldn’t deny it, but it still left him helpless, he had no idea what they were going to do now. Seoul was all they had, it was their only hope. Driving down to Busan was impossible, he knew they didn’t have enough fuel to reach South Korea’s second biggest city.

“He’s precious to them, I can’t risk my people’s life for him, or for you,” explained the redhead, gazing at Jimin, then at Taehyung. “The raven can stay, he’s not an oracle, but you two… I just can’t risk it.”

Taehyung looked away at those words, a frown twisting his face. Being an oracle definitely was a curse. Even in the outside world he still was a sort of outcast. How could he possibly put any of them in danger? All he had were visions, nothing else.

“Jungkook, what are you doing?”

Both the raven and the brunet turned around when they heard a new voice as well as footsteps; a tall silver-haired man was walking in their direction.

“Keeping this place safe, dumbass,” replied the redhead, rolling his eyes. “Those three just arrived. Two of them are oracles, one actually already used by their tree’s authorities.”

“You know that’s no reason to refuse them shelter,” retorted the other as he reached them. “We’ve welcomed runaway oracles before.”

“Namjoon hyung, you know just like me that it isn’t safe to welcome new people. The radiation levels–”

“They’re not low enough for them to send people out, you know it perfectly, they won’t risk it,” Namjoon cut him off, now standing right next to Taehyung. “They have no idea what it’s like to live outside anymore, they might even get killed before reaching us.”

Seokjin and Taehyung glanced at each other, not quite sure what the other meant. Getting killed before reaching Seoul? What could possibly kill them? They hadn’t seen anything on their way here, not even animals. There had been no signs of life until now.

“Look at this one, then, and tell me everything’s alright with that tree’s oracles,” groaned Jungkook, looking at Jimin while he spoke.

Taehyung stared at the silver-haired man, hoping he would convince the other that letting them stay wouldn’t cause any problem. He knew that at some point they would run out of gas if they had to keep on moving, and then he had no idea what they would do, especially with Jimin in a coma.

“He’s not just any oracle.”

Both Taehyung and Seokjin’s heads shot up when they heard Namjoon utter those words.

“Wait, what are you doing to him?” asked Taehyung, rushing to their sides when he noticed Namjoon was leaning over Jimin’s face.

“Look at his eyes,” he continued, letting the redhead take a look.

Taehyung tried to push them away from his childhood friend, but the resistance he encountered from Jungkook left him defeated. Was he even human? The man hadn’t budged, not from an inch. Nobody was that strong.

“You know just like me that it could be to our advantage to have him here,” said Namjoon when Jungkook straightened up.

“He could also be our downfall,” retorted the redhead, folding his arms. “He grew up in a tree, and apparently he hasn’t been conscious all that much as he’s been in this state for thirteen years, he probably doesn’t even know what he is.”

“We can help him, he wouldn’t be alone here. Most oracles in trees don’t know what’s happening to them anyway.”

Jungkook took off his mask, sighing heavily. “If something goes wrong, it’s on you,” he ended up saying, glancing one last time at Jimin.

“Sure,” snorted Namjoon, removing the black scarf that covered his lower face, before turning around to look at both Taehyung and Seokjin. “You can all stay.”

The raven’s eyes lit up at those words.

“However, for safety reasons, and mostly to keep this one at peace,” he continued, glancing at Jungkook from the corner of the eye, the redhead giving him the finger at those words. “You won’t be allowed to go around freely as long as your friend hasn't regained consciousness.”

“We understand,” said Seokjin, bowing.

Taehyung mimicked the raven’s moves. He was grateful, they wouldn’t have to keep on driving, but at the same time it didn’t feel right just yet. They weren’t free, it almost felt like they had left a prison for another one.

“Actually, we don’t know if he will even come round,” said Seokjin, helping Jungkook take the bed out of the car.

Taehyung looked around to see the other men walking away, which made him sigh in relief, they weren’t targets anymore. Having guns pointed at him was new and he clearly didn’t like the feeling. They didn’t have firearms in trees as far as he knew, but he was aware of how dangerous they could be in the wrong hands.

“He will, don’t worry about that,” replied Namjoon, smiling softly.

“What were you talking about earlier, about Jimin not being just any oracle?” asked Taehyung, taking his stuff out of the car.

Namjoon and Jungkook exchanged a quick look before the redhead replied.

“You’ll know when he wakes up.”

The brunet frowned, not quite satisfied with that answer. He didn’t really understand what it was that made Jimin so special in everybody’s eyes. Moreover, he didn’t know how Jungkook had discovered he was an oracle just by looking in his eyes, as far as he knew there was no difference between an oracle and someone like Seokjin, they all looked the same. But he couldn’t deny that there had been something in the redhead’s eyes, something oddly familiar, although Taehyung couldn’t pinpoint what, and maybe that’s what Jungkook had noticed in his own.

He glanced at Seokjin, hoping the raven would say something, but his best friend only shrugged.

“We can’t really do anything about this,” he said, grabbing his bags. “We have to content ourselves with what we get.”

Taehyung heaved a sigh, knowing Seokjin was right. They were alive, and maybe they weren’t completely free yet, but they still had a place to stay, which was better than nothing. Namjoon seemed to be more open to dialogue than Jungkook, and he also seemed more willing to help than the redhead. The brunet understood why the other hadn’t been too keen on letting them stay here, they were strangers after all, he couldn’t expect those people to trust them just like that.

The only thing that seemed to have made the redhead reconsider his decision was Jimin. Was the reason to Jungkook’s change of heart also why the authorities of their home tree had taken Jimin away from his family when he was so young?

“Now, follow us,” said Namjoon after ordering someone to drive the car to a garage.

“Why won’t you explain to us what Jimin is?” asked Taehyung, following the silver-haired man while Seokjin stayed close to Jimin, keeping an eye on what Jungkook was doing.

“Do you know why you’re an oracle? What makes you different from your friend?” asked Namjoon, glancing at the brunet from the corner of the eye.

Taehyung looked down and shook his head, he still had no idea, Yoongi’s files hadn’t been of much help in that matter.

“Then you have a lot to learn,” sighed Namjoon, opening the door to the building in which Taehyung had noticed light earlier. “And considering how your unconscious friend seems to be around Jungkook’s age, I’m pretty sure he has no idea either.”

“He was taken away when he was nine years old,” replied Taehyung, holding the door for Jungkook and Seokjin while Namjoon typed in the code for the lift.

The silver-haired man frowned, casting a glance at Jimin once again. He was nine when he was taken away? That didn’t make sense, the blond barely looked like he was an adult. What was really going on in trees?

“I know what you’re thinking,” said Seokjin, having noticed the face Namjoon was making. “We don’t know for sure what made him look younger either,” he sighed, rubbing his temples with his forefingers. "I’m guessing it’s drugs."

“Drugs?” repeated Jungkook, an eyebrow raised inquisitively, pushing the bed in the lift before the others walked in.

“A friend helped us escape,” started the raven, heaving a sigh. “We noticed that he had needle marks on his arms, and he looked younger by a few years, too. From what we know, the new oracles are injected drugs to make their visions more vivid as well as more frequent.”

“If you check Jimin’s arms, you’ll see needle marks,” continued Taehyung, brushing a few strands of hair off the blond’s face. “We didn’t really check our other friends that were kept in there, but I’m pretty sure that they had some too.”

“Other friends?” frowned Namjoon.

Seokjin and Taehyung looked at each other before looking down at Jimin.

“You’ve no idea what’s going on in trees,” said Taehyung, a shiver running down his spine just by thinking about all the glass coffins.

“I can’t imagine it being that bad,” said Jungkook, rolling his eyes.

“It’s perfect as long as you follow the rules and don’t question the authorities,” started the brunet, glaring at the redhead. “And being a potential oracle means living in the fear of being picked during a harvest. People like me and Jimin are never safe in trees. Even if the council says it’s an honour to be picked as an oracle, it’s not, really,” he explained, his voice threatening to break at any moment.

“Civilians don’t know it, honestly, we wouldn’t know if we hadn’t decided to run away, but Jimin’s current state is probably how oracles have always been. They become objects, they’re stripped of their freedom, of their life,” continued Seokjin, noticing how Taehyung was reaching his limit.

“That’s not the way oracles should be treated,” muttered Namjoon, his eyes darkening, as he walked out the lift.

“Your friend here didn’t want us to stay though, because Taehyung and Jimin are oracles,” stated Seokjin.

“We have our reasons,” sighed the silver-haired man, gesturing them to follow him in a barely lit hallway. “And you better be grateful,” he continued, turning on his heels to glare at them, his eyes now pitch black. “I’m playing nice right now, but I could still throw you out of here. Trust me when I say that you were lucky to get here in one piece.”

 

* * *

  

_Sitting atop a high-rise building, his legs dangling, he watched as the crimson sky slowly turned indigo, night falling over the city. It was eerily silent, but he knew it wouldn’t last, he knew that in exactly 103 seconds, the deafening sound of an explosion would rip through the air, a scorching hot wave hitting him barely 74 seconds later. He put a hand over his heart, unusually calm for once. He could feel the vines that constricted his rib cage, feel the way one was poking at his right lung as he inhaled deeply._

_“What’s the point in all this, mother?” he wondered out loud, watching how everything before him was set ablaze, already feeling the heat all over his body. “Is it all just a game for you?”_

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All I've to say is : here come Jungkook and Namjoon! They'll all need some time to warm up to each other, but hey, at least Seokjin and Taehyung aren't all alone anymore.
> 
> Join me on my Twitter [@minmoanie](https://twitter.com/minmoanie) if you want to talk! You can also come and ask me questions on my [cc](https://curiouscat.me/minmoanie) if you want ♡
> 
> Kudos and comments (respectful please) are always appreciated ♡


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Humans tend to forget that Mother Nature is the one in power, not them”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/minmoanie)  
>  [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/minmoanie)  
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“Why couldn’t we just stay with Jimin?” grunted Taehyung, pacing around the room.

“Taehyung-ah, please, sit down,” sighed Seokjin. “Jimin isn’t going anywhere, they just took him to the medical wing. We should be grateful that they gave us living quarters instead of locking us in a cell or something,” he pointed out as he observed the other from his spot on the couch.

“It’s not like we can get out of here,” replied the brunet, slumping down next to his best friend.

“Maybe, but we can’t exactly blame them for being careful, they don’t seem to trust tree people, and that’s exactly what we are,” stated the raven matter-of-factly, running a hand through Taehyung’s hair.

“But we fled our tree,” muttered the other, looking down at his clenched fists.

“That doesn’t mean they should trust us. Who knows, maybe they had people claiming they had run away before too, but they actually had ulterior motives for getting here.”

Taehyung glanced at his best friend from the corner of the eye, a slight frown twisting his face. He hadn’t thought about it that way. The authorities behaved like it was impossible to survive in the outside world, but maybe they knew some people had survived. Considering what they did with oracles, he wouldn’t be surprised that if they managed to catch outsiders, they would use them for experiments to discover how exactly they had survived the nuclear catastrophe.

“What I’m really curious about is how they know so much about oracles and how Jungkook could tell you’re one just by looking at you,” continued Seokjin, tapping his fingers on the armrest absentmindedly.

“I don’t even want to think about him,” groaned Taehyung, looking out the window that overlooked an underground garden.

Namjoon had explained that they lived underground, in a facility that had been built to shield people from any nuclear catastrophe or attack. It looked quite similar to the trees’ designs, only that it spread underground and wasn’t as big. A faction of scientists and architects that had participated in the construction of trees had worked on this facility, but when Taehyung and Seokjin had asked who they were exactly and why they’d do that considering the government had other plans in motion already, Namjoon hadn’t answered and Jungkook had said it didn’t matter after so many centuries. For the light Taehyung had spotted when they were still on the road, the two outsiders had explained that they went in the buildings on the surface only when the detectors and cameras on the perimeters of their facility detected unusual activity, which had left Taehyung and Seokjin perplexed. It really seemed like whoever had first moved in here had done everything to prevent anyone else from entering, or at least from taking them by surprise.

“He really rubs you up the wrong way,” chuckled Seokjin, closing his eyes and ignoring Taehyung splutter in response.

As much as he didn’t feel completely safe yet, it definitely felt good to not have to look over his shoulder for any sign of the tree authorities following them. He could already feel his body shutting down because of how hectic and stressful the past two days had become.

Seokjin glanced at his best friend who seemed to be lost in his thoughts before closing his eyes again, a soft, content sigh escaping his lips. Going out in the outside world was something he never thought he’d live long enough to experience, but here they were, miles away from their home, with no idea what would happen next. However, all that mattered to Seokjin was that Taehyung was safe, at least from the council. They would handle whatever came next.

He was slowly drifting off, his head tilting back, when the door was violently opened, making both him and Taehyung jolt up in alert.

“I thought they were messing with me, but you _really_ are here!” exclaimed the newcomer.

“Hoseok?”

Both young men stood up, not quite believing their eyes. Hoseok quickly hugged them, smiling wildly.

“How the hell did you two get out? Especially you, Taehyung,” he asked, letting go of them.

Taehyung slightly smiled, feeling uneasy. He wasn’t sure how to tell the other that they had managed to get out only thanks to Yoongi’s help. Yoongi and Hoseok were like the two faces of a coin, they were inseparable ever since they were children, both of them being oracles had brought them even closer as they grew up. They both understood each other in ways that Taehyung knew Seokjin would never understand him.

Tree people often compared visions to vivid dreams, but that was a poor comparison. There really was no word to describe what visions were like, although if Taehyung had to choose, he would call them nightmares rather than dreams. Never had he ever seen anything positive in them, and he was pretty sure it was the same for the others. Moreover, what he saw usually didn’t make much sense and he had given up on trying to explain his visions to his best friend after a while. If he couldn’t grasp what was happening, how could Seokjin help him after all? He didn’t want to burden him with the atrocities he witnessed.

“Yoongi helped us.”

Taehyung glanced at Seokjin, his heart clenching painfully when he noticed the other’s solemn expression. He perfectly knew what his best friend was thinking, but he really hoped it was just the raven worrying too much.

“Yoongi..?” Hoseok’s eyes widened, not quite sure he had heard well. “Yoongi can’t have helped you, he was shot when I escaped,” he uttered, his surprised expression morphing into a mix of confusion and doubt.

“Well, he _did_ help us, Hoseok hyung,” replied Taehyung, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. “I don’t know what happened when you two tried to escape together, but he was very much alive yesterday.”

Taehyung went to his bag to get the files the blond had given them, handing them to his skeptical friend.

“Look, there are some handwritten notes on the map,” he said, urging the other to look through the files.

“This still doesn’t make any sense, I saw him get shot, I saw him fall to the ground,” muttered Hoseok, staring at Yoongi’s handwriting, stone-faced.

Taehyung and Seokjin glanced at each other, both at a loss for words. Yoongi hadn’t mentioned anything about being shot, just that he had taken the authorities off Hoseok’s back four months ago, and then that he was the one who kept their oracle friends alive, whatever that meant. Now Seokjin couldn’t help but wonder if they should have asked more questions, he had had a weird feeling concerning the blond the moment he had stepped in the oracle room, but he had brushed it off, at that moment, all that mattered was escaping without getting caught by anyone.

“Anyway,” shrugged off Hoseok, a small, obviously forced, smile stretching his lips. “I’m glad you two got to escape and get here safely!”

“I still don’t get this,” groaned Taehyung, sitting back down on the couch. “Getting here safely? There’s literally nothing out there and the authorities wouldn't follow us, no matter what their analyses show.”

“Oh trust me, there’s plenty out there,” laughed the other, walking to the window while Seokjin just kept standing, his arms now crossed over his chest, his eyes not leaving Hoseok.

“It’s just not exactly how you’d imagine it based on the books and films we have in trees.”

“How so?” questioned Taehyung.

“Animals in some areas survived the radiations, but their genes mutated, I guess, to adapt to the environment they had to live in. I’m not a biologist though, so really this is just me guessing,” he explained, turning around to look at both his childhood friends. “I’m sure you also wonder how Jungkook could tell you’re an oracle, am I right?” he smiled.

“Definitely suspicious about that,” said Taehyung, grimacing just at the thought of the red-haired man.

Hoseok laughed, shaking his head. “He’s like us, not quite human.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” asked Taehyung, looking at his best friend in confusion, but he only got a shrug in response. Seokjin had no idea what the other meant either, although he had always wondered what made oracles what they were.

“Taehyung-ah, do you really think you’re human? With the visions you’re having?”

“Well, how should I know? The council doesn’t seem to know much either from what we’ve gathered,” replied the brunet, an eyebrow raised. “The only thing I noticed while reading through the files Yoongi gave us is the word ‘spirit’, but that doesn't mean shit on its own,” he grumbled, frustrated.

“Oh it means a lot, trust me,” grinned Hoseok.

 

* * *

 

“I still believe this is a bad idea.”

“Shut up Jungkook,” groaned Namjoon, unbuckling Jimin from the bed. “Did you really think it was a good idea to let _this_ boy go?” he asked, taking him in his arms to move him to a proper bed.

“Honestly? Maybe, yeah,” retorted the other, shrugging.

Namjoon glared at his dongsaeng as he uttered those words. He really hated how detached the redhead could be sometimes, especially for matters like these. The boy in his arms was more than a simple oracle, letting him go would have been a mistake.

“You can glare at me all you want, I won’t change my mind,” sighed Jungkook, crossing his arms over his chest.

“He will need your help, though,” stated the taller man, pulling the covers over the unconscious blond. “With your mother gone, you’re in charge of the medical wing.”

“Namjoon, I already told you my brother would be in charge, not me.”

“I’m not giving you a choice here, Jungkook,” retorted the other as he straightened up. “Your brother won’t be able to take care of him as well as of the others. You heard his friends, oracles are drugged in their tree. Look at him, based on what his friends said, he’s been drugged for over ten years. Can you imagine how strong his withdrawal might be? Because I can’t, and I don't think your brother would be able to handle it on top of all his other responsibilities.”

Jungkook stared at the unconscious blond, heaving a sigh as he sat on the chair next to the bed. Namjoon was right, his brother and him had the same knowledge, but they didn’t have the same approach. His brother was more humane than him, he had a hard time dealing with human suffering, although he knew he had to put his feelings aside to help others, which he managed to do. But drug withdrawal? He could see why Namjoon believed that he was more fit for the job. Moreover, he was almost certain that it was a drug of the tree authorities’ own making, which meant he couldn’t even foretell what the blond would be going through. It might have been a mix of already existing drugs, but that would only make it even harder for the oracle to get through the withdrawal.

“I can’t promise you that he’ll make it, though,” he informed his best friend.

“Because his intake is suddenly stopped?”

“Yeah...” sighed Jungkook, running a hand through his hair. “I’ve no clue what drugs they injected him, but considering how long he’s been on them… It’s going to be a shock for his body to not get his usual dose.”

Namjoon hummed in response, leaning against the white wall, and stared at the ceiling, his eyebrows knitting together. He understood why Jungkook was telling him that already, the chances of the unconscious blond not making it were high, much higher than him surviving.

“They used those drugs to trigger the visions, can’t that help you?” he asked, turning his attention back to Jungkook.

“Honestly, I don’t think we have anything that could help. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were a mix of tranquillisers and hallucinogens, but who knows what kind of drugs they developed over the centuries in there? And what the hell made him look like that too? He’s supposed to be twenty-two, right?” Namjoon confirmed with a nod. “But he looks barely twenty, so I really can’t tell what he was injected.”

“So…”

“It won’t be pretty,” sighed Jungkook, running a hand over his face. “It will be both physically and emotionally draining on him.”

Namjoon stared at his best friend, noticing the look in the other’s amber eyes, a small smile spreading his lips. No matter how much of an arsehole Jungkook could be, it always was for their own safety. He had a soft heart under all those layers, Namjoon had always known that, but he tended to forget it because of how Jungkook always had his walls up. He had grown cold and distant over the years following his mother’s disappearance, which sometimes made Namjoon worry that he had lost the boy he used to know. However, the way he looked at the unconscious oracle at the moment gave him some hope.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when Jungkook slammed his fist in the wall right next to him, making the older wince.

“How the hell can they treat oracles that way?” he growled, clenching his teeth.

Namjoon rounded the bed and laid a hand on Jungkook’s shoulder, feeling the tremors that shook the other’s body. He glanced at the wall, slightly groaning when he noticed the cracks that spread like a spider web. Jungkook really had to control his strength sometimes.

“Don’t they know what caused the catastrophe centuries ago? If she knew what they do to them…”

“As usual, they probably forgot about it,” sighed Namjoon, now massaging the other’s shoulders. “But I’m sure she knows what’s going on, she will remind them of her existence, one way or another. Humans tend to forget that Mother Nature is the one in power, not them, and that they’re once again _all_ responsible for the catastrophe.”

Even people who had survived on the outside had somehow forgotten that what had made the world blow up like it did centuries ago wasn’t exactly due to a race for power between the great powers. Humans had forgotten about the existence of Mother Nature back then, associating her to some weird beliefs from a bygone era, and had polluted the Earth so much that even she had been spoilt.

Namjoon had learnt from tree defectors that they were taught that war tore the world apart and that it had all gotten out of control. Nuclear power plants, which had kept on spreading all over the world even after minor catastrophes _– at least compared to the one that disfigured the face of Earth –_ occurred over and over again, had been used as weapons of mass destruction by the great powers according to tree officials, although the truth was that it was Mother Nature who had somehow lost control and retaliated by eradicating over 80 % of the world population, shattering her own self at the same time.

However, some people still knew the truth. After talking about it with Hoseok, Namjoon had learnt that some tree people still knew that it was Mother Nature that had caused their destruction, the two boys they had just welcomed being part of the few who didn’t just believe everything they were told. The problem was that it was a minority, most tree people didn’t dare question their authorities.

Namjoon would be a liar if he said he didn’t dread what would happen in the future. Mother Nature might have imploded, but she still lived among them, and he feared the consequences of the authorities’ treatment on the oracles. They were her children, she wouldn’t let it slide forever.

“She lives in every one of us, I’m sure that one way or another, she helps those of us who are trapped in the trees,” he continued.

“Not enough for them to feel safe, apparently,” retorted Jungkook.

The silver-haired man didn’t reply, knowing that the other was probably right. She had helped them survive the catastrophe centuries ago, she still helped them right now, but it seemed like the ones in the trees didn’t get as much attention from her. Or maybe they did, but because they didn’t understand what they were and didn’t know what made them that way, they didn’t realise it. The only reason why Namjoon and Jungkook knew so much about oracles was because their ancestors had made sure that their knowledge was passed down through the generations of oracles, but some of the people who lived in the facility with them had forgotten about it, still.

He removed his hands from Jungkook’s shoulders when the other stood up and quirked an eyebrow quizzically.

“Anyway… I’m still not sure this is a good idea, hyung,” he uttered. “If he had been conscious, maybe, but now? We don’t know what he knows exactly, if he even knows anything at all. He was a child when their authorities took him away and put him in this state.”

“And I told you that we would help him, just like the other ones who fled. I won’t change my mind, Jungkook,” stated Namjoon, walking to the door. “He is staying here, and you’re responsible for him.”

“Listen, I get why you want me to take care of him, but I don’t have time to look after a child,” retorted the redhead. “Because that’s what he is,” he added when Namjoon glared at him. “He might have physically aged, but he probably is still a child in his mind.”

“We don’t know that for sure,” countered the other, opening the door. “I need to talk with the sentries, so keep an eye on him, I’ll come back when I’m done,” he added, disappearing in the hallway before Jungkook could say anything.

He grunted as he sat back on his chair, glaring at the unconscious blond. He grabbed one of Jimin’s hands and looked at his arm, feeling his stomach churn. He was fuming just thinking about what the tree authorities had done to him when he was just a child. They hadn’t just drugged him, they also had tortured him, it was obvious from the scars he had spotted on the blond’s body when Namjoon had switched beds, and it just infuriated Jungkook to no end.

His reticence to let this stranger stay wasn’t irrational, he had his reasons and they were well-founded, but he also understood why Namjoon wanted to take him in. Nature’s spirit lived in every one of them, so in a way they were all linked. However, the truth was that it could get corrupted the same way Mother Nature had been centuries ago, and that was something that worried Jungkook. His job was to protect his people, and the unconscious blond could be a threat depending on how what he had been through in his tree affected him. They had learnt how to control themselves in the outside world, they could take advantage of everything that came with their “special” condition, but tree people didn’t know anything about it, or at least, they didn’t do anything to help oracles in their own societies. They didn't even know that there was more than just visions to being an oracle.

“It’s not against you,” whispered Jungkook, tightening his grip on the other’s hand. “I just have to think about my people first. I will help you, Namjoon isn’t giving me a choice, but if I feel like you’re too dangerous for–”

He cut himself off, his gaze falling on the hand he was holding, confused. Had he just imagined it? Were his nerves tingling with exhaustion and giving him this impression or…

**_No._ **

It twitched, again. His head jerked up when he picked up on a small sound, a faint whimper. Disbelief was written all over his face when he locked eyes with ever-changing orbs, a chill running down his spine because of how intense the other’s gaze was.

“ _Help me._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the last one of the group! Hoseok's finally here. Things will start moving now that they've all appeared at least once.
> 
> Join me on my Twitter [@minmoanie](https://twitter.com/minmoanie) if you want to talk! You can also come and ask me questions on my [cc](https://curiouscat.me/minmoanie) if you want ♡
> 
> Kudos and comments (respectful please) are always appreciated ♡


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“After Jung Hoseok betrayed you and left you to die, you did everything to help us.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/minmoanie)  
>  [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/minmoanie)  
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He slowly opened his eyes, his vision swimming a little before it could focus. He could feel how heavy his body was, how groggy he felt.

“He’s awake, sir.”

He tried to move his head to the side, in the direction of the muffled, feminine voice, only to realise it was tightly secured, his body seizing up when he felt the unusual presence of screws poking at his skull.

He cursed internally when the realisation that he had been put to sleep dawned upon him. He wasn’t in his bed as he first had thought, he was in a coffin, and not in the oracle room from what he could see. The walls, unlike where all the oracles were kept in a deep slumber, were black, the same way they were in the corridors of the inside of the trunk. He had never stepped foot in this room, but the feeling of the restraints around his wrists and ankles as well as around his head was enough to tell him that he would have preferred to keep it that way.

“Ah Yoongi-yah, I’m sorry my dear, but we had to take some extra precautions this time round.”

A man came into his field of vision, Yoongi’s eyes widening in shock when he recognised him.

Kim Minwoo.

He thought Seokjin’s father had been removed from the oracle wing, the authorities had demoted him a few years ago after they had found out that he took his experiments a bit too far, even for them.

“We can’t just let you roam the area when my son and the oracle I had specifically requested to be harvested have escaped, taking with them our most valuable asset. We must make sure you had nothing to do with that before letting you go, you understand that, right?” he continued, pushing on a button to open the lid of the coffin.

Yoongi opened his mouth, wanting to reply, but he found himself unable to speak, his eyes frantically going from Minwoo to the assistant. While Minwoo looked smug at Yoongi’s panicked state, his assistant definitely seemed sorry, tearing her gaze away from Yoongi when they locked eyes.

“We’re going to go through your head a little, it’s much more reliable than whatever you might say.”

“Although it is an invasion of priva–”

“He’s an oracle, Jihye, there’s no such thing as privacy for them once they’re taken in,” cut off Minwoo, his sharp eyes now set on his assistant.

She bowed down immediately, murmuring an apology, before stepping back, getting out of Yoongi’s field of vision.

“Now, let’s get started. We’ve lost enough time as it is,” sighed Minwoo, running a hand through his hair. “We normally wouldn’t have had to put you to sleep, but we had to in order to let your brain recover. Those stupid guards,” muttered the doctor, turning his back to Yoongi to look through some vials.

Yoongi frowned, having no recollection of what had happened for him to be in this state, for Minwoo to say that his brain had needed time to recover. He remembered watching Seokjin and Taehyung driving away, in direction of the forest, but he couldn’t remember how that had happened, or what had happened afterwards. The sense of relief he felt when Minwoo said that Taehyung and Seokjin had left was real, though, so he knew he had something to do with their escape, he just couldn’t remember what. It was blank, his memory wiped clean.

“You don’t remember what happened to you?” asked Jihye, now back in his field of vision. She had a wet cloth in hand which she used to clean the blond’s forehead.

Unable to utter his answer or shake his head to reply to her, he bit his lower lip, looking away from her soft, brown eyes.

“You were tased and hit in the head,” she sighed, her eyebrows knitting together. “They say they found you in the control room going through the security footage. We also found a syringe in your belongings, which clearly contained one of our drugs, that’s why we have to look through your memory to know what truly happened.”

Yoongi looked back at her, noticing the way she kept on glancing warily at the older man. He couldn’t help but wonder how long he had been put to sleep. How long had it been since Taehyung and Seokjin had escaped? Had they made it to a safe place?

“You’ve always been a loyal oracle, Yoongi-yah,” added Minwoo, taking Jihye’s spot, a syringe in hand. “After Jung Hoseok betrayed you and left you to die, you did everything to help us.”

Yoongi inhaled sharply at the mention of Hoseok’s name. If he could, he would have laughed and spit in Seokjin’s father’s face. They had gone with this narrative the moment they had saved his life, after he had been shot and dragged back inside the tree by the guards. Hoseok had never betrayed him, he was perfectly aware of that, the authorities were too, but they had done everything in their power to break their bond and make him turn his back on the most important person in his life.

The truth was, Yoongi had forced Hoseok to keep going while he had jumped off the motorbike to get the guards’ attention on him. He knew Hoseok must have hated himself for leaving him behind, he probably had left with a gruesome image in his head, thinking the worst, as Yoongi had been shot several times. However, he hadn’t turned around to get him, he had respected Yoongi’s wish to at least save his own life. Hoseok being alive was what Yoongi had clung on to the past four months, the faint feeling of their unusual bond giving him hope. If Hoseok had died on his way to Seoul, Yoongi was sure he would have felt it, so he could only hope Hoseok could feel that he was still alive too, despite what he had witnessed as he drove away.

“But you have quite a record for being uncooperative when it comes to your friends, and I know you were friends with my son before your little stunt four months ago. So to find you in the control room, going through the security footage, is suspicious, wouldn’t you agree?” asked Minwoo, raising an eyebrow inquisitively.

Yoongi only stared blankly at the dark-haired man. Everybody believed that he had ended up succumbing to the mental torture they had put him through for a whole month, but the scientists as well as the authorities had underestimated the strength of his bond with Hoseok. It didn’t surprise him, though. They knew nothing about oracles, so they couldn’t know that when their gifts manifested themselves, they sometimes developed unbreakable bonds with other oracles. It was rare, Yoongi and Hoseok had quickly realised it as other potential oracles didn’t develop such bonds with others, but it was real, they just had kept it to themselves once they had realised it wasn’t that common.

“I must say, you’re smart, Yoongi-yah. I’m convinced you injected yourself whatever was in that syringe before the guards found you, but you made sure it was undetectable and unidentifiable. But well… We can only blame ourselves for developing such drugs in the first place,” shrugged Minwoo. “You should have known, though, that we have means that don’t require you to talk to get what we want,” he sighed, tapping two fingers on the inside of Yoongi’s forearm to make his vein bulge before pricking the skin with the needle.

Yoongi felt Jihye’s soft hands on his forehead as she brushed some stray strands of hair away before she stuck electrodes to it. He knew what was coming, and no matter the kind of drug Minwoo had injected him, he knew it wouldn’t work. Yoongi had dealt with psychological torture for weeks, he had managed to control what the authorities would see when they searched his mind, this wouldn’t be any different.

“Let’s begin.”

 

* * *

 

_“You really have one of the best rooms in the district.”_

_Yoongi groaned, the noise slightly muffled, as his face was buried in his pillow. He slowly turned on his side, a soft smile stretching his lips as his gaze fell on Hoseok. The other was sitting cross-legged next to him on the bed, his eyes set on the outside world, admiring one of the rare sunsets they’d ever see in their lives._

_“You get to witness the sunset every time it happens.”_

_“Is that why you always come to my quarters, Seok-ah?” snorted Yoongi, propping himself up on his forearms, tilting his head to the side. He always loved to see Hoseok watch the outside world, the other had a fascination for the sun, his eyes glimmering each time he got to see it break through the clouds._

_“I mean, I can’t deny that I prefer them to mine,” replied Hoseok, now looking at Yoongi, a heart-shaped grin spreading his lips._

_Yoongi shook his head, still smiling. At this point, Hoseok had pretty much vacated his own quarters, but Yoongi wasn’t one to complain. Unlike Hoseok who still lived with his family, Yoongi lived alone, his brother had moved to another district after he had gotten married and their parents had decided to leave the fourth district too once Yoongi had turned twenty-two. Having Hoseok around made him feel less lonely, because as much as Yoongi liked his alone time, he didn’t like the feeling of loneliness that had settled once his family had moved to another part of the tree, especially because he was stuck in the fourth district until he reached his thirty-fifth birthday._

_He startled when he felt Hoseok fall on top of him, his arms wrapping themselves around his neck._

_“Where did you go just now?” asked Hoseok, locking eyes with Yoongi, before brushing their noses together._

_“Nowhere important,” he replied with a soft smile, running a hand through the other’s brown locks._

_Hoseok frowned as he leant back a little, sliding one of his hands away from Yoongi’s neck to cup his face, caressing his cheek with his thumb. His eyes worriedly roamed over his face before they locked eyes again, Hoseok’s amber gaze boring into Yoongi’s darker one._

_“Hyung, you know you can tell me anything, right?”_

_“I know, Seok-ah,” sighed Yoongi, wrapping his arms around the other’s body to bring him down into a hug, Hoseok immediately hugging him back._

_“We’re in this together, forever,” whispered Hoseok as he felt Yoongi nuzzle his nose in the crook of his neck._

 

* * *

  

 _“_ _Yoongi, what the hell? I’m not leaving you behind!” yelled Hoseok, not believing what he was hearing._

_“You don’t have a choice, Seok-ah,” replied Yoongi, letting go of the other’s waist._

_The motorbike roared as Hoseok sped up, Yoongi perfectly aware of what he was trying to do. They might have had a chance of entering the woods, but the risk of both of them being shot and dragged back inside their tree was too big. If he could at least get all the attention on him and give Hoseok some time to take cover under the trees, he had to do it._

_“This is ridiculous, Yoongi, we can make it to the woods, they won’t follow much further!”_

_“I can’t risk you getting caught,” retorted Yoongi, biting his lower lip._

_He grabbed the gun he had secured in his belt and put his weight on his feet, rising up from his sitting position behind Hoseok, his left hand on the other’s shoulder._

_“We said we were in this together!”_

_The desperation in Hoseok’s voice broke his heart, but the whistle of a bullet grazing them took his mind off it. There was no time to argue._

_“Promise me you won’t come back.”_

_“Yoongi, I–”_

_“Promise me,” he insisted, squeezing Hoseok’s shoulder._

_He could feel the tremors shaking Hoseok’s frame, the other trying to hold back a sob._

_“I promise,” he finally said, a hand reaching for Yoongi’s on his shoulder to squeeze it one last time._

_Yoongi smiled, relieved. This didn’t necessarily mean Hoseok truly wouldn’t come back, he knew it, but he still hoped it did. He hoped Hoseok would respect his wish for him to live his life, away from their tree._

_“I love you, Seok-ah,” he whispered in the other’s ear, quickly kissing the crown of his head, before jumping off the bike, a yelp leaving his lips as his body hit the ground._

_He didn’t let the pain settle as he stood up, turning his back to Hoseok to look in direction of the tree. He could see some guards lingering at the garage door, not daring to step outside, but others had stepped in the outside world, their weapons aimed at him and Hoseok._

_They were oracles, so Yoongi knew that the orders were to bring them back alive, they were too valuable to be killed, but it didn’t matter in what state they were brought back. Moreover, a bullet shot at this distance, on a moving target, could very well hit in the wrong spot. Yoongi knew they would focus on him, the easy target, rather than Hoseok._

_“Please, don’t look back,” he whispered as he raised his own gun._

_He barely had time to shoot twice before his legs gave way beneath him, searing pain shooting through his left thigh. Honestly, he had grabbed the gun as an afterthought, but now he realised it had been the perfect way of getting the guards attention on him, solely him. He wasn't just a target now, he also was a threat to them. Another_ bang _echoed around them, Yoongi clutching his shoulder with a groan, tears now blurring his sight, as another bullet hit him. He could feel the blood soak his jacket, seeping through the material, tainting his fingers red._

_“Yoongi!”_

_He tried to look over his shoulder despite the pain, gulping as he locked eyes with Hoseok who stood at the forest’s edge. Yoongi didn’t need to clearly see the other’s expression to know what he felt, their bond was enough to tell him how torn he was. Torn between going back to Yoongi and fleeing._

_He shook his head, another_ bang _ringing in his ears. He fell to the ground, his body numb with pain. He could hear the stomping of feet approaching, guards yelling orders to one another._

_“Just leave,” he said one last time, a small smile gracing his lips when he saw Hoseok get back on the bike and turning around._

_Hoseok’s back was the last thing he saw before his vision went black, the heel of a gun hitting the back of his head._

 

* * *

  

“Sir, there’s nothing here.”

Minwoo cursed, throwing the tablet he had been holding to the ground, the screen shattering as it hit the dark tiled floor.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” he groaned, his furious gaze now settling on Yoongi. The oracle’s eyes were wide open, a faraway look in them as his memories were analysed by the system.

“It does if he wasn’t involved, sir,” replied Jihye weakly, worried that this would anger her superior even more.

“So it was just a coincidence that he was caught deleting files?” Minwoo laughed, shaking his head. “You can’t possibly be this naïve, you’re not my assistant for nothing.”

“I’m just stating facts, sir. If we can’t find anything about your son and Kim Taehyung in his memories, besides them driving away, that means he wasn’t involved with what happened beforehand,” she explained, doing her best to sound as assertive as possible. “I believe he only tried to erase any traces of them escaping. He just wasn’t aware that Kim Taehyung was your choice for the harvest, which unfortunately backfired on him.”

Minwoo stared at his assistant for a moment before turning around, heading to the door.

“Wake him up and let him go, he’s useless, as always,” he ordered, swiping his card to open the door.

“Yes sir.”

Jihye waited until the door closed behind the man before letting out a sigh, her heartbeat slowing down as the suffocating atmosphere that had pervaded the room with Minwoo’s frustration dispersed. She made quick work of taking the electrodes off Yoongi’s forehead before injecting him a serum which would cancel the effects of the drug Minwoo had given him earlier. She then undid his bindings, carefully unscrewing the headgear.

Truthfully, Jihye didn’t believe that Yoongi had nothing to do with his friends’ escape, she even had an idea of what he must have injected himself. It seemed to have the effects of a drug she had been working on on the side, a drug she had told him about once when he had roamed around the labs.

However, she wasn’t about to tell anyone. She hadn’t become a scientist so they could treat oracles the way they had for years, she had found her vocation when she had witnessed her own sister being taken away. It had been years until she had gotten to see her again, but the day she had, she knew something was wrong.

“Yoongi-ssi, you must be careful,” she whispered, sitting down on a chair next to the coffin, waiting for the blond to regain his senses. “You’re Kim Seokjin’s friend, so you must know his father shouldn’t be messed with…”

Yoongi slowly blinked, feeling the telltale signs of himself regaining control of his body in the small tingles that spread through his limbs. He turned his head to the side, locking eyes with Jihye. She smiled at him as she stood up, reaching out to help him sit up.

“He’s gone, I managed to convince him that there was nothing to find in your mind,” she said as she handed him a bottle of water.

Yoongi took a big gulp, almost finishing the whole bottle in one go, before finally talking, his voice cracking at the end. “How long was I out?”

“Barely a week,” replied Jihye. “But that’s not what matters, Yoongi-ssi,” she continued, looking into the blond’s eyes sternly. “What you did was reckless, helping them and then erasing the footage? Did you think they wouldn’t investigate you?”

Yoongi shook his head, a small smirk spreading his lips.

“Why do you think that I injected myself your latest creation?”

Jihye sighed before letting out a short, incredulous laugh. Yoongi had some nerves to use an unfinished product on himself like that, but she could only guess that desperate times called for desperate measures. She wouldn’t ask how he had gotten his hands on it, or even why he had it on the day of the harvest. She knew Yoongi had never given up on the idea of leaving the tree, the only reason why he had stayed behind for three months after his release was to help her make sure the other oracles were treated better, otherwise he would probably have bolted at the first chance he got.

“You really need to be careful.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore, Jihye-ssi, I’m leaving.”

“And how will you do that? Minwoo will have you watched, Yoongi-ssi, he won’t let you get out of his sight until he’s sure you can be trusted again,” she muttered, cleaning up the mess her boss had left behind him while Yoongi watched her from his spot in the coffin.

“Then let him, I’m in no rush, I got the people who mattered the most to me out of here, I can wait for the right moment.”

Yoongi slowly climbed out of the coffin, making sure his legs could support his weight before letting go.

“I guess you must be able to create an antidote to whatever I took, right?”

Jihye stared at the oracle in disbelief. “Are you serious?”

“I’ll need those memories back, Jihye-ssi.”

“I bet you do,” she snorted, handing him proper clothes and pointing to the adjacent changing room so he could change out of the white blouse they had put him in a week ago. “Be grateful I’m good at what I do.”

Yoongi shrugged in response, although he shot her a small smile before disappearing in the other room. He knew that if it weren’t for Jihye’s help, he would already be dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I'd write a small Yoongi-centric chapter to show what happened to him after Jin and Taehyung left with Jimin, and while at it, why not give you some sope moments, right?
> 
> Join me on my Twitter [@minmoanie](https://twitter.com/minmoanie) if you want to talk! You can also come and ask me questions on my [cc](https://curiouscat.me/minmoanie) if you want ♡
> 
> Kudos and comments (respectful please) are always appreciated ♡


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“It will all be fine, Jiminie,” murmured Taehyung in his ear before kissing him on the forehead._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/minmoanie)  
>  [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/minmoanie)  
>  [Spotify playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6i1SbB69UssdWV8tTXPmzZ?si=DExCR-ACTlyOraWxIrvM4A)

_“How long?”_

_He sighed softly, feeling the other’s fingers follow the vines that spread under his skin, dipping into each curve of the plants wrapped around his bones._

_“Who knows,” he whispered, turning on his side so he could face Taehyung, the other’s big hand falling between them on the mattress. “She won’t let me know, she never will, so there’s no point wondering about it.”_

_He brought a hand up, running his fingers through the other’s dirty-blond hair before letting it slide down to his cheek, stroking it softly._

_“You don’t want to know?” asked Taehyung, locking eyes with him, the colour changing every second._

_He knew what she was doing, making him see his childhood best friend like this. He had figured out how visions worked a long time ago, so he knew that this Taehyung –no matter how much he wished for it– wasn’t real, maybe wasn’t even close to being the way she portrayed him. However, Jimin would never refuse a moment of peace, no matter how short-lived it was._

_“Not really,” he muttered, sidling up to the other, wrapping an arm around his chest, burying his face in his neck. “I just want to enjoy your presence for as long as I can,” he continued, pampering the other’s golden skin with kisses._

_He smiled, thinking about how healthy Taehyung always looked in his visions. His eyes always shone brighter than Jimin could ever remember and his skin had a healthy glow that not many people had in trees due to the lack of natural sunlight. He could only wish this was what Taehyung truly looked like, that he hadn’t shown any signs of being an oracle, despite being a district 4 resident, that he was still free to do whatever he wanted._

_This moment was a possibility among millions of what Jimin could have experienced had he not been taken in, he knew it. He had learnt to regain control of his thoughts and consciousness during visions as years went by, therefore he could make the difference between real events and possibilities that were shown to him._

_He heaved a sigh, tightening his embrace around the other’s body. He could feel one of the vines poking at his right lung, a reminder he received in every single one of his visions, but he decided to ignore it this time around, the feeling of Taehyung wrapping his arms around his smaller frame making him feel unusually safe and warm on the inside. Feeling loved was scarce for him since he had been taken away from his family, so he would bask in that feeling the few times he could experience it._

_“It will all be fine, Jiminie,” murmured Taehyung in his ear before kissing him on the forehead._

_Jimin didn’t reply, only wishing he could believe it this time round._

 

* * *

 

“What happened to you?”

Taehyung knew he should have made his presence known before even asking the question, especially with how startled Hoseok looked when Taehyung’s deep voice boomed against the walls of the public bath, but he couldn’t help but stare at the jagged scar that marred Hoseok’s whole left side, spreading from his left shoulder blade down to his hip bone.

“Sorry, hyung, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he apologised, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly as he joined the other in the water.

“It’s alright, I usually notice when someone comes in, but I guess I was too lost in my thoughts to realise you were there,” replied Hoseok, smiling at the other softly. “And this…” he trailed off, pointing at the scar. “I’m not sure I can actually tell you about this, Taehyungie. Namjoon’s been pretty clear, we should wait for Jimin to be among us too.”

Taehyung shook his head, a soft grunt of disapproval escaping his lips. “It’s been over two weeks since we arrived, hyung… What if he stays in that state forever? Then what? You’ll keep us in the dark forever? I get that they probably want to know what Jimin’s seen while he was in that state, but there’s no telling he will even be able to explain it. You know just like me how confusing visions can be.”

Hoseok hummed in response, knowing that his dongsaeng was right to some extent. He understood why Namjoon and Jungkook preferred to wait for Jimin to wake up, especially after what had happened in the hospital wing. However, he also understood Taehyung’s need for answers. Growing up in a tree, they had been kept in the dark or lied to about just anything. Namjoon and Jungkook refusing to explain anything just furthered this feeling of helplessness and distrust that had implemented itself in their minds and hearts years ago.

Truthfully, Hoseok believed they should at least tell them that Jimin had somehow regained consciousness, even though it was for a few seconds and in a state that had rendered Jungkook speechless. The redhead had even taken to meditating several hours in a row, trying to connect with nature’s spirit, in order to understand what could have possibly happened with Jimin.

Hoseok sighed, looking back at Taehyung. He didn’t like the way he was caught in the middle, wanting to believe that Namjoon and Jungkook were right to wait, but also wanting to finally give Taehyung and Seokjin what they deserved; honesty and trust.

“As I told you before, there are things out there that are beyond our understanding.”

Taehyung only hummed in response, watching water trickle down his fingers as he held his hand in the air, above the water.

“I can’t tell you much until the others decide that it’s time, but…” Hoseok groaned, running a hand through his hair. “This, what caused this injury, it wasn’t an animal, but… it wasn’t human either.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Taehyung frowned, locking eyes with his hyung. “Not animal, nor human?”

“I can’t tell you more, Tae, but just keep in mind that you and Seokjin were lucky to get here without any hitch…”

Taehyung rolled his eyes, tired of hearing the same thing over and over again. Everybody kept on telling them they had been lucky, even people who they had never talked to before would just tell them that it was crazy they hadn’t encountered anything on their way to Seoul. However, each time Taehyung tried to ask about what they meant, they would scatter away, mumbling a ridiculous excuse. Seokjin had already given up, he didn’t see the point in pushing people to talk about something they clearly didn’t want to explain, something that they most likely had been instructed to keep to themselves.

He leaned back with a heavy sigh, looking up at the ceiling. He didn’t like feeling out of the loop, he didn’t like feeling like things were kept from him. It felt like the tree all over again, which was something he hadn’t signed up for. When they had fled their home tree, it was so they could find some sort of freedom, but right now, in Seoul’s underground base, it felt like they had never left. The only difference was that being an oracle here didn’t mean having a target on his back; he hoped so at least.

“Tae, are you growing grey hair?”

“What?” snorted the oracle, looking at Hoseok in disbelief. Was his hyung really trying to change the topic of the conversation like this? By mentioning his hair out of everything?

“I’m not joking, Taehyung-ah, you have grey strands,” frowned Hoseok, leaning forward to catch some of the grey strands in between his fingers. “I didn’t think it would happen so fast, it took months for me.”

“What are you talking about, hyung? This is just the stress or something,” sighed Taehyung, shrugging slightly.

“It’s not, Tae.”

He was about to retort, finding it ridiculous to focus on something as trivial as hair colour, but the look Hoseok was giving him made him swallow down his words.

“Taehyung-ah… I know this might sound weird but…” Hoseok heaved a sigh, running a hand through his honey blond hair. “Did Yoongi still have black hair when you saw him?”

“No… He was blond, like Jimin,” replied the younger one.

Despite not knowing what his hyung was talking about, he could sense this wasn’t just a matter of _hair colour_. There was more to it, the look of pure grief that painted Hoseok’s face confirmed it.

“Hyung, what’s going on? You’re scaring me.”

“You… The file Yoongi gave you, the one I read, was it really all he gave you?”

“Yes,” frowned Taehyung. “Why? Should there be more?”

“Taehyung-ah…”

Taehyung stared at his friend and gulped, not knowing what to do as he witnessed him choke on his next words.

“Yoongi and Jimin… They fucked them up.”

“Hyung, what are you talking about?”

Taehyung reached out to Hoseok when the honey blond suddenly burst into tears, although he still didn’t quite understand why his friend suddenly reacted this way. This actually was the first time he ever witnessed Hoseok breaking down, his hyung was known for being quite a literal ray of sunshine, never letting anything get to him, always wanting to make others happy.

“Yoongi and Jimin aren’t supposed to look like this, their hair colour shouldn’t have changed, not when our exposure to the outside world is so restricted in trees.”

“I don’t get what you’re trying to say here. It’s just hair, hyung.”

“Not as an oracle, Tae,” retorted Hoseok, shaking his head. “Can you tell me, what hair colour everybody had in the oracle room?”

Somehow, Taehyung knew the answer he was about to give Hoseok wouldn’t please him, it wouldn’t pacify him, but it also was one way of getting closer to the truth.

“Blond. They were all platinum blond.”

“Oracles… We all have different hair colours, unnatural hair colours. Look at us. Namjoon has silver hair, so will you from the looks of it. Jungkook has red hair, I have honey-blond hair… But platinum blond? It’s not a good sign, Taehyung.”

Hoseok sighed, rubbing his eyes.

“Our hair colour is a sign of who we are, the more we are in touch with nature’s spirit, the more we are exposed to it, the more our hair will change. That’s why any oracle who has been outside of trees doesn’t have a natural hair colour anymore. That’s why your hair is changing now. But inside trees? No matter how many plants we might grow inside, it’s not enough for us to develop our connection, it’s not a real connection to nature.”

“I don’t understand what’s wrong, though. Nobody here has been inside the labs until us and Yoongi, how could you know that platinum blond is a bad sign?”

“Because it shows impurity, it shows that the oracle’s spirit has been corrupted. We’ve seen it on people bef–”

Hoseok fell silent when he noticed Jungkook enter the room, keeping in the sigh of relief that threatened to escape his lips when he realised the redhead hadn’t noticed what they had been talking about. He shook his head when Taehyung opened his mouth, probably wanting him to continue their conversation, although he took the hint and rolled his eyes in response.

Hoseok wasn’t scared of Jungkook per se, but as a tree defector, it had taken him time to finally win people’s trust here, it had taken him time to finally be let in the confidence; he didn’t want to lose that.

“Hyung, Taehyung-ssi,” greeted them the redhead as he stepped in the water.

Hoseok noticed from the corner of the eye the way Taehyung smiled at the other, tight and very obviously forced, at least to someone who knew him since he was a child. Taehyung was good at acting, good at faking alright, but with the years, their little group of friends had started seeing through that mask. Hoseok knew Taehyung didn’t quite like Jungkook, which was understandable considering Jungkook’s reluctance to let him and Seokjin stay, but the redhead had since then tried to be on his best behaviour with them, aware that he might have been too harsh. Seokjin had let it slide, he understood Jungkook’s reasoning, but Taehyung… Taehyung had a hard time letting it go. Truthfully, it was a pity that they had started off on the wrong foot, because Hoseok knew that Taehyung and Jungkook actually could have gotten along very easily.

“I heard that the one who helped them get out is your soulmate, hyung?” Jungkook said, realising he wouldn’t get any other reaction from Taehyung.

Hoseok smiled softly, sadness evident in his eyes.

“Yes, apparently he survived his wounds,” he replied. “My dreams make more sense now that I know that he’s actually still among us.”

“Your dreams?” asked Taehyung, eyes wide.

“Yes, although now I guess they were visions rather than dreams,” explained Hoseok, scratching the tip of his nose as he thought about them. He thought it had just been his subconscious trying to cope with what he had seen, with the loss of his soulmate, but now that he knew that Yoongi was still alive, he saw them from another perspective.

“Oracles with soulmates usually dream about each other,” added Jungkook, running a hand through his hair, revealing his forehead, Taehyung’s gaze zeroing on it.

He had noticed that Jungkook always wore a bandana, or any other kind of cloth, wrapped around his forehead, covering the skin. He hadn’t given it much thought, but now he couldn’t help but wonder why he covered it, and especially what the meaning of what he was covering was. He felt his stomach churn at first, the light colour reminding him of Jimin’s scars, however, the more he looked at it, the more he realised that it was different. The skin had obviously been taken care of meticulously so it would heal nicely, and while Jimin’s scars obviously had no pattern to them, this looked like it had been done on purpose, it could almost pass off as a tattoo if it were another colour.

He shook his head, tearing his gaze off the redhead to focus back on what they were saying before.

“What do these dreams look like?”

“Well, some of them are visions from the past, from time we spent together, but others… They’re of the future, of several alternatives. Although in each one of them, Yoongi is the way you described him to me, so that means that it’s not just some sort of euphoric vision.”

Taehyung hummed in response, this was at least something he understood. He might not have been told much, but he had still learnt that there were different types of visions, and that one of them was called euphoria. That kind of vision was the only one oracles truly looked forward to, it was an escape from the real world, it let them enjoy whatever they needed for the time they were asleep. However, euphorias were rare, and usually only soulmates experienced them with one another. Moreover, no matter what, they were never a depiction of the truth. Euphorias let oracles see what they needed to see for their own sake, not what they were supposed to see. Euphorias, so far, had never turned out to become true.

“You know, sometimes I dream about him…”

Hoseok and Jungkook both turned their attention to Taehyung, eyeing him curiously.

“About Jimin,” he added, looking down at his lap. “I couldn’t tell if those were just dreams, or if they’re visions… They started to get stronger once we found him in the trunk, though. Until then, the ones I had were just dreams to me because I would see him growing up with me, looking healthy and nothing like he does now… But I always knew that those weren’t real, because despite everything, I still always knew that it wasn’t real, that it wasn’t possible. I knew that in reality he had been taken away,” he sighed. “Or, sometimes, there would just be some sort of time skip, we would be a bit older, and we…” Taehyung groaned, rubbing his eyes.

“That sounds like euphorias to me,” said Hoseok, rubbing a hand over Taehyung’s back soothingly. “And it would make sense too. You and Jimin didn’t present as oracles at the same time, but… You were always attached at the hip. Knowing what kind of bond me and Yoongi have, it wouldn’t surprise me that you and Jimin have the same.”

Jungkook observed the both of them quietly, his amber eyes locked on the brunet’s hunched figure. His hands itched to reach out for Taehyung, but he knew it was pointless. After hours of meditating, of forcing visions and exhausting himself mentally and spiritually, he finally had found some answers that he had been looking for since he had presented as an oracle, since his soulmate mark had been etched into his skin. However, he knew that before they could do anything, they had to wait for Jimin to fully wake up.

The redhead bit his lower lip, closing his eyes. In moments like these he wished his mother hadn’t disappeared, she probably would have had a better idea of what to do with an oracle on the brink of turning into something that wasn’t quite human anymore, she would have known how to slow down the process at least, something he wasn’t quite sure he could achieve.

Jimin had emerged four more times after that first time, twice with Jungkook, and twice with Namjoon, who had had to restrain him even more the first time he had witnessed the oracle regaining some sort of consciousness. They had to drain the drugs from his system, therefore they couldn’t inject him with a sedative like they would usually do. However, this led to violent awakenings, Jimin fighting against his restraints more every single time. The oracle never said much, never seemed actually conscious, but he did ask for help every single time, which made the redhead wonder what exactly he was going through while he was unconscious, and if he was actually aware of what was happening. Every time he woke up, it looked like a mix of Jimin’s own mind and nature’s spirit fighting to take over.

Jungkook rubbed a hand over his ribs, feeling the dips in between his bones, remembering the feeling of Jimin’s body under his fingertips, a frown twisting his face. Maybe he was too far gone for saving already.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short moment of peace for Jiminie while Taehyung just... well, tries to understand basically everything. They're finally all starting to interact some more, and I hope you enjoy this so far. There's obviously still a lot to reveal (just look at Jungkook for example, haha) but we're getting there.
> 
> Join me on my Twitter [@minmoanie](https://twitter.com/minmoanie)! You can also come and ask me questions on my [cc](https://curiouscat.me/minmoanie) if you want ♡
> 
> Kudos and comments (respectful please) are always appreciated ♡


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“I bet,” he snorted, the tone in which he uttered those words surprising Jungkook. He sounded defeated. He expected Jimin to feel bitter about missing over ten years of his life, but he just sounded like he had given up. “I can’t believe she brought you here though, a complete stranger but fully conscious… she’s never done that before.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/minmoanie)  
>  [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/minmoanie)  
>  [Spotify playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6i1SbB69UssdWV8tTXPmzZ?si=DExCR-ACTlyOraWxIrvM4A)

_“Well, this is new for sure,” Jimin chirped up, staring at the redhead with shining eyes, colour changing every second, the way Jungkook was used to seeing them now every time Jimin regained consciousness, even if it was for a few seconds only._

_Jungkook only stared at the oracle in response, eyes wide. How had he ended up here?_

_“I only ever see people I know, so I wonder who you are,” wondered the blond out loud, pursing his lips._

_A frown twisted the redhead’s face, not quite sure he understood. It wasn’t the first time Jimin appeared in his dreams or meditations, but usually he was always unconscious, moreover, it was in a setting Jungkook was familiar with. This, as he looked around, realising they were on top of a skyscraper, was completely new. And so was witnessing Jimin conscious and aware of his surroundings._

_There was an eerie feeling to this place, something that made his guts twist painfully._

_He watched the oracle sit down on the edge of the roof, legs dangling, one hand pressed against his chest, the other supporting his weight behind him._

_“I guess you’re an oracle,” said Jimin, looking over his shoulder to lock eyes with Jungkook._

_“I am,” he replied, trying not to focus on the bad feeling he had._

_Jimin hummed, a soft smile gracing his plump lips, before turning his attention back to the horizon, to the crimson sky that painted the world in a red hue._

_“Then I’m sorry we’re meeting like this,” sighed the blond._

_“In a way I’ve already met you,” replied Jungkook, deciding to go sit next to the other. He didn’t dwell on the apology, he could tell something was wrong with this place, something Jimin seemed to be aware of, but there was no point trying to figure it out. He’d probably find out about it sooner or later._

_“My body?”_

_Jungkook nodded in response before looking at the sky. This just didn’t look like any of his dreams or visions, it wasn’t something created by his subconsciousness, no; he was in Jimin’s own world, in his own visions, where the blond was still conscious. He wasn’t speaking to the Jimin his mind had mustered over the weeks, he was talking to the real person._

_“How come I’ve never met you, then? Unless I’ve lost my grasp of time and we’re already a few decades in the future… but I don’t believe it’s the case,” Jimin shook his head. “You’re barely younger than me, I would have met you at least once in our district as a child.”_

_“You’re not aware that you’ve been waking up several times the past few weeks?”_

_“Of course I am, but it has happened in the past and I’d just get a stronger dose if that happened,” replied Jimin with a shrug, hissing softly, hand clutching at the front of his chest. “I’ve never been conscious enough to get a good grasp of my surroundings.”_

_“You’re not in your tree anymore.”_

_Jimin’s head whipped in his direction, eyes wide with disbelief._

_“You arrived in Seoul around a month ago with two of your friends, Kim Taehyung and Kim Seokjin.”_

_“That doesn’t make any sense,” muttered the blond, frowning._

_“A lot happened during the years you were locked in the restricted area of your tree, Jimin-ssi.”_

_“I bet,” he snorted, the tone in which he uttered those words surprising Jungkook. He sounded defeated. He expected Jimin to feel bitter about missing over ten years of his life, but he just sounded like he had given up. “I can’t believe she brought you here though, a complete stranger but fully conscious… she’s never done that before.”_

_“She?”_

_“Mother Nature, she brought you into this vision,” clarified Jimin with a groan. “How, I don’t know, but she did. Usually I only see Taehyungie, but it’s never the real him…”_

_Jungkook nodded, knowing that Taehyung had had similar dreams._

_“I’m glad he’s out, though. I was worried about him still being in our tree…”_

_“Because he’s an oracle too?”_

_Jimin smiled sadly, not looking at Jungkook. “So he is one too… I didn’t know.”_

_“He is, although he doesn’t understand much of what it entails.”_

_“Of course he doesn’t,” sighed the blond. “I might not have been able to witness a lot of what real life is like in trees, but I know that we’re kept in the dark about what we truly are.”_

_“Do you know?” asked Jungkook, one eyebrow raised questioningly. “Ever since you arrived at our compound, I’ve been wondering what you’ve been going through...”_

_“I know bits and pieces,” replied Jimin, scratching the back of his head. “But I know enough to know that if what I’m feeling right now is also happening to my actual body, then I may not have a lot of time left,” he muttered, his hand massaging his chest._

_Jungkook eyes zeroed in on the motion, hands reaching out before he could even comprehend what he was doing._

_“You can feel the vines?” he asked, his hand replacing Jimin’s._

_He could feel a bump under the other’s shirt, a bump that wasn’t there on his real body though. There were some around his ribcage, yes, twisting around the bones, but this one was one he hadn’t felt until now._

_“I can see you frowning, is that a bad sign?” Jungkook looked up, slightly taken aback by how close Jimin’s face was to his._

_“I don’t know,” he answered, slowly moving away. “That vine, it’s not there yet in your actual body, I don’t get it.”_

_Jimin hummed, looking back at the horizon, the sky finally turning indigo. It had taken longer than usual to happen. “I don’t have it in a few of my visions, but in those I’m usually younger.”_

_Jungkook frowned, not quite sure he understood what the other meant._

_“I have visions from the past,” explained Jimin, scrunching up his nose. “But this, right now? This vision is either just a setting, either it’s the future,” he continued, the explosion he had been waiting for finally ripping through the air, Jungkook jolting at the deafening sound, eyes widening as he witnessed the world being set on fire right in front of him. “I don’t wish for this to be the future,” he said, now looking at Jungkook. “I’m sorry we had to meet like this,” he apologised once again, smiling at him softly before reaching for his face, hands cupping his cheeks. “Close your eyes, don’t look,” he whispered, body burning up with the heatwave setting everything ablaze, eyes closing as his soft lips met Jungkook’s soulmate mark on his forehead._

 

* * *

 

In the medical wing, every machine started beeping alarmingly, Jimin’s body contorting on the bed despite the restrains bound around his wrists and ankles, an inhuman cry leaving his lips.

On the other side of the compound, Jungkook woke up with a start and a strangled scream, feeling like his body was on fire, the deafening sound of the explosion and the image of the heat wave approaching, burning everything in its way, etched in his mind.

 

* * *

 

“How is he?” asked Seokjin as Namjoon walked out of Jungkook’s room in the medical wing.

“He still doesn’t speak to me, if he isn’t meditating, he’s sleeping. He barely even eats,” sighed the oracle, running a hand through his silver hair. “I set up an IV just in case.”

Seokjin nodded, looking worriedly at the door. He wasn’t quite sure what had happened five nights ago, nobody really did. All he knew was that Jungkook had to be brought to the medical wing. Seokjin had seen him that night, he had woken up when he had heard the commotion in the hallway, Namjoon barking orders and Jungkook’s brother trying to calm the redhead down while they rolled him out of his room on a stretcher.

Seokjin hadn’t made himself known, he knew he wasn’t supposed to have seen any of that, but when he had heard in the morning that at the same time Jimin had had a violent seizure, he just knew it wasn’t a coincidence. He might not have been an oracle, but he knew enough. He knew how oracles’ souls could sometimes connect and bond, Hoseok had once explained that to him while they talked about Yoongi, so he couldn’t help but think that it was related, that whatever Jimin had experienced in his sleep, Jungkook must have gone through it too.

“I don’t know what to do, Junghyun doesn’t either…” continued Namjoon, walking away from Jungkook’s room. Seokjin could see by the way he held himself, by the way he walked, his steps heavy and dragging on the floor, that the silver-haired oracle was exhausted.

“What do you think he’s trying to do?”

“He’s probably trying to trigger whatever vision he had that night, he’s always been good at bending the spirit to his will, but I guess it’s harder than he expected this time around…”

“Bend the spirit to his will?” repeated Seokjin, his eyebrows knit together. This was the first time Namjoon let something slip about oracles in front of him, until now he had always kept their conversations to what Seokjin already knew from the tree and the files Yoongi had given them.

Namjoon glanced at the raven, sighing softly.

“As oracles, we live with a part of nature’s spirit within us. The more scientific ones of us will say that it’s a rare gene, which explains why oracles always appear in the same families. Sometimes that gene develops, sometimes it stays dormant our whole life.”

“A gene,” muttered Seokjin, looking thoughtful.

“But I don’t think it is, or at least it’s more than that,” added Namjoon, opening the door to Jimin’s room. “We’re in communion with nature, we draw our strength from it.” Jin closed the door behind him, watching Namjoon make his way around the bed, to the monitors. “A simple gene can’t explain that,” he sighed, checking Jimin’s vitals.

“So you can control it?”

“To some extent, yes. It’s not actually that special, but I know that for tree defectors, it’s usually quite a surprise to hear that oracles can control most of their visions.”

“I mean, it is… They use oracles as objects, putting them in that so-called oracle state, triggering visions, until they pass away…” mumbled Seokjin, taking Jimin’s small hand in his.

Namjoon made a small sound of disapproval at those words, shaking his head. He bet most of those visions weren’t even accurate, not in such a hostile environment. Triggering accurate visions was possible, of course, but it had to be done under certain conditions, which oracles in trees didn’t have.

“And I don’t know what’s so special about Jimin. I understand that he might have been precocious, the same way some children are with other things, but to take him in and make him go through all _that_ at such a young age? Sometimes I even wonder if he wants to be alive,” continued Seokjin, hands tightening around Jimin’s.

The oracle looked at the other, anguish clear on the raven’s face.

“Even you said that he wasn’t just any oracle, but you won’t tell us anything, even though you’re aware that Taehyung and Jimin might be soulmates,” remarked Seokjin, locking eyes with Namjoon. “Trust me, I understand that you want to protect yourself, you’re being careful with newcomers and that’s normal, but this… I think we have the right to know what made Jimin end up in this state, what made him so valuable to the authorities that they took him away, drugged him, tortured him… His mother didn’t even tell us that, I bet she didn’t want us to know the gravity of the situation...”

She must probably have tried to spare them the gruesome details, but Seokjin and Taehyung were bound to find out what was really happening back there, the same way they would find out about the true nature of oracles as well as the truth about Jimin.

“I get where you’re coming from,” replied Namjoon. “Hoseok might not have said it explicitly, but I know that you’re kept in the dark in trees, so it must feel frustrating to be in a similar position in a place that is supposed to be better.”

Seokjin sighed, thinking about the honey blond. He knew that Hoseok had vouched for them the moment he had had the confirmation that it truly was his friends that had come seeking for shelter and not some random people with the same names. He knew that the only reason why they could go wherever they wanted was thanks to that, if it weren’t for Hoseok, they could have still been locked up in the quarters that had been given to them on their first day here.

“I can handle it. However, Taehyung… This concerns him directly, you’re keeping his very own nature from him.” Seokjin ran his fingers through Jimin’s hair, pushing some stray strands out of his face. “You should talk to him, because at this rate, by the time Jimin wakes up, Taehyung might not be able to trust you at all anymore.”

Namjoon nodded, observing the small but caring gestures Seokjin had for the unconscious oracle. It had surprised him the first time he had witnessed it, he knew Seokjin had been reluctant to look for Jimin the day they fled their home tree, so he expected him to not care too much. However, he had later realised that Seokjin was similar to him and Jungkook in a way. At the time he had worried about Taehyung only, he had worried about the one person he knew he could save.

“I would normally say that I’ll talk about it with Jungkook, but considering the state he’s in right now…” trailed off Namjoon, running a hand through his hair.

“Have you thought about putting him and Jimin in the same room?”

The oracle’s eyebrows shot up at the suggestion. It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about it, he knew Jungkook’s state matched with Jimin’s latest seizure, he knew how oracles’ souls sometimes met halfway in visions, so he should have expected it. Even before this, the redhead had taken to meditating a lot more than usual and Namjoon knew it was for Jimin’s sake that he did it. It was just a matter of time before the two oracles met in their sleep.

However, he hadn’t thought Seokjin would think that way too, most people who knew about Jimin’s seizure believed it was due to his drug withdrawal because that’s what it usually was. Yet, in this case Namjoon had some doubts.

“I know it’s more of a spiritual bond if what I suspect really happened, but maybe being physically close could help?”

“You’re not wrong, souls can meet no matter the distance between them, Hoseok and your friend back in your tree are perfect examples, they still share dreams and visions despite being so far away from each other. But physical proximity stimulates it, in a way,” said Namjoon, now looking at Jimin. “It doesn’t guarantee it, but it helps.”

“How long do you think it will take until Jimin properly regains consciousness though?” sighed Seokjin, eyebrows pinched as he looked at Jimin. “We’ve been here for more than a month now…”

“I honestly can’t tell you. We don’t know what those drugs are, we can only get him off of it. At this point I believe it’s not only the drugs keeping him down.”

The raven locked eyes with the other, eyeing him questioningly.

“He might be stuck in visions,” explained Namjoon.

“But the withdrawal should have woken him up.”

“That’s why I believe there’s more to his state. Unfortunately, we won’t know if he’s fine until he’s actually conscious and not trapped in between.”

“So what? We just… wait it out?”

“We don’t have any choice here, and I don’t want to give him any kind of medication or drug to stimulate him, it could worsen his state or trigger his body. But your idea of bringing Jungkook in could be beneficial to Jimin too. If they truly met in a vision, Jimin’s senses might react to Jungkook’s proximity. As oracles we’re much more sensitive to our surroundings.”

“So what are we waiting for?” asked Seokjin, standing up.

At this point he knew they had to find a way to wake up Jimin completely. His mind went to Taehyung as they took Jimin to Jungkook’s room, worry filling his chest once again as he thought of the emaciated grey-haired oracle curled up near the window of their quarters, eyes set on the blooming flowers in the garden.

Despite the looks of it, Jungkook and Jimin weren’t the only ones close to the point of no return. It seemed like they all stood at the edge of a cliff and, against all odds, those two weren’t the closest to falling off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess we could say this is jikook's first official meeting? I think it was about time those two interacted a little, even if it's not in the real world.
> 
> Join me on my Twitter [@minmoanie](https://twitter.com/minmoanie)! You can also come and ask me questions on my [cc](https://curiouscat.me/minmoanie) if you want ♡
> 
> Kudos and comments (respectful please) are always appreciated ♡


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